10 Ways The Universe Could Kill Us All Tomorrow If It Wanted To

7. The Big Rip

No, not a tabloid headline about banking charges, The Big Rip is actually the almost inevitable by-product of something we know is actually happening. Dark energy, which as well as sounding totally bad ass, is possibly the most powerful force in existence, is what we think is behind the universe's continued expansion dating right the way back to the big bang. Assuming that it can't carry on like this for ever, either the expansion will reverse (and time will go backwards, maybe) or the entire universe will tear itself apart. A bit like blowing up a balloon, either you're going to let the air back out or you're going to burst it. Of course, if the universe does tear itself apart it would mean that every molecule in creation would split at exactly the same time. We would neither know it was coming or even noticed it had happened. We, and everything else, would just be gone.