First post in Big Rip Theory

Big Rip

In physical cosmology, the Big Rip is a hypothetical cosmological modelconcerning the ultimate fate of the universe, in which the matter of the universe, from stars and galaxies to atoms and subatomic particles, and even spacetime itself, is progressively torn apart by the expansion of the universe at a certain time in the future. According to the hypothesis, first published in 2003, the scale factor of the universe and with it all distances in the universe, which is known to be increasing, will be found to increase exponentially. If this were to happen, the model speculates that eventually in many billions of years' time the scale factor would become infinitely large, pulling even subatomic particles and the fabric of spacetime apart, and ending our universe.

The possibility of sudden singularitiesand crunch or rip singularities occur only for hypothetical matter with implausible physical properties.