Ultimate fate of the universe out a theory that has since come to be called the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe. In 1948, Fred Hoyle set out his opposing Steady State theory in which the universe continually expanded but remained statistically unchanged as new matter is constantly created. These two theories were active contenders until the 1965 discovery, by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, of the cosmic microwave background radiation, a fact that is a straightforward prediction of the Big Bang theory, and one that the original Steady State theory could not account for. As a result, the Big Bang theory
The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report Ferris then shows, in a third possibility, that the universe is hanging in the balance in a "critical density" that says Ω looks to be "exactly" 1. Ferris makes the summation the universe will then always expand, but at a slower and slower rate that never completely comes to a halt. He follows this up with some exceptions that Ω is not always observed as "exactly" 1 by all cosmologists. Ferris believes that the Big Bang theory is correct because of microwave background radiation which gives space a temperature of 3 kelvins. The Hubble telescope has also shown, through the