How It Ends: What We Know about the Fate of the Universe - Chris Lintott

00:00 // Introduction: Facing the End of the Universe 01:23 // The Life and Death of the Sun 04:19 // Understanding the Universe’s Future 08:47 // How We Discovered the Expanding Universe 13:29 // Big Bang, Big Crunch, and Cosmic Models 20:05 // Entropy and Why the Universe Can’t Rebound 25:19 // Measuring the Fate of the Cosmos 28:15 // Stars, Black Holes, and the Death of Light 33:01 // Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe 36:33 // The Far Future: Big Rip or Eternal Expansion? 40:49 // Could New Universes Be Born Again? 43:03 // Music and Reflection on the End of Everything Watch the Q&A session here:    • Q&A: How It Ends: What We Know about the F...   How will it all end? Predicting the far future of our Universe depends on understanding its present. This lecture starts with what seems to be a paradox in modern cosmology: that we have a model that does a fantastic job of explaining what we see, but which says 95% of the Universe is in forms (dark matter and dark energy) that we don’t understand. From there, we get a quick tour of the next 100 billion years – and speculate how the Universe’s end may hold the secrets of its beginnings. This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on the 24th of September 2025 at Conway Hall, London Professor Chris Lintott is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College. Having been educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge and University College London, his research now ranges from understanding how galaxies form and evolve, to using machine learning to find the most unusual things in the Universe, to predicting the properties of visiting interstellar asteroids. He was the founder of the Zooniverse citizen science platform, which provides opportunities for more than two million online volunteers to contribute to scientific research, and which was the topic of his first book, 'The Crowd and the Cosmos’. His latest book is ‘Our Accidental Universe’.  Professor Lintott is best known for presenting the BBC's long-running Sky at Night program, and as an accomplished lecturer. Away from work, he cooks, suffers through being a fan of Torquay United and Somerset cricket, and spends time with a rescued lurcher, Mr Max. He can often be found at the helm of Oxford’s science comedy night, ‘Huh, That’s Funny’. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/h... Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involve... Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook:   / greshamcollege   Instagram:   / greshamcollege   Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcolle... TikTok:   / greshamcollege   Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involve...