Why the universe could be about to collapse on us

LOOK out. The universe could be about to collapse and squeeze us all into a tiny ball. And it could happen TODAY, according to scientists.

An illustration to show the theory where all particles in the universe will become extremely heavy and squeezed into a tiny b...

TIME to take that holiday you've always wanted because the universe and everything in it could be about to collapse and be squeezed into a tiny ball. And it could happen today.

As reported by the Daily Mail, mankind and everything we know could cease to exist and the process might already have started, should scientists at University of Southern Denmark be correct.

"Now we have performed more precise calculations, and we see two things: Yes, the universe will probably collapse, and a collapse is even more likely than the old calculations predicted," Jens Krog, PhD student at the university told the Daily Mail.

We shan't pretend to understand how this brain-bending event has been calculated, but the researchers claim they "have proven" the theory whereby a "shift in the forces of the universe will cause every particle in it to become extremely heavy".

The article explains this process is called "phase transition" and this new weight will essentially "squeeze" everything into a small, extremely hot, heavy, tiny ball.

An illustration to show the theory where all particles in the universe will become extremely heavy and squeezed into a tiny ball. Source: University of Southern Denmark.

What could cause this event to happen would be down to a subatomic particle, Higgs boson, which could have an ultra-dense state and could "bubble" up suddenly in a certain place of the universe at a certain time.

"The bubble would then expand at the speed of light, entering all space … all elementary particles inside the bubble will reach a mass much heavier than if they were outside the bubble, and they would be pulled together to form supermassive centres."

As if this doesn't sound scary enough, the researchers say this could already be happening somewhere in the universe, right now. "Maybe the collapse has already started somewhere in the universe and right now is eating its way into the rest of the universe … or maybe it will start far away from here in a billion years."

But before you run out to start your bucket list, there's a chance this might not actually happen at all. Again, it comes down to more calculations. In order for the phase change the universe must consist of certain elementary particles.

"If the universe contains undiscovered particles, the whole basis for the prediction would prove false."

Phew.