Future Civilizations Won't Be Able to Understand How the Universe Started and Evolved

Every now and then we are hard pressed not to look up at the canvas of stars above our heads in awe, wondering how it all began and where we came from. One of the most inspiring moments in science was when we first theorized the Big Bang: the finite beginning of an infinitely expanding universe.

However in a short trillion years time, the evidence of the Big Bang might be invisible, causing serious issues for future civilizations. NASA says we have the expansion of the universe to blame for this.

As the rate of expansion in the universe continues to accelerate, the observational evidence that we get in the form of electromagnetic radiation (light), and which lead us to understand the Big Bang and our cosmic evolution, will be impossible to detect.

Here's a video that explains what this expansion means for the future of humanity:

 

And to that end, we should be grateful that Earth is early to the party. Since it's part of the first 8% of all habitable planets to be formed in the universe, we have front-row tickets to muse, ponder, and discover...we are able to see the tendrils of the Big Bang in the form of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and through it, we can uncover the fundamental physics that birthed our universe.

Notably, a trillion years might seem like a long, long time. And it is. However, keep in mind that the last star in the cosmos isn't expected to burn out until a staggering 100 trillion years from now. That's enough time for literally anything to happen—for countless civilizations to rise and fall.

And unfortunately, the universe that they encounter may be a rather dark and unfathomable place.