Relax!Universe to last another 26 billion yrs

The universe will last for another 26 billion years and not collapse in a "big crunch" within 11 billion years from now as predicted earlier, a new study has found.

Relying on the theory of 'dark energy'-- an unseen force counteracting the pull of gravity -- astrophysicists have come to the conclusion that the universe is expanding faster than thought.

Andrei Linde of Stanford University leads a team who previously predicted that the Universe might end as soon as 11
billion years from now. But their latest research into dark energy gives us a stay on the end, Nature magazine reports.

The team's new calculation relies on recent observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, which has found several supernovae that are moving away from us faster than any others seen before, implying that the Universe is expanding faster than we thought.

Linde, the magazine says, concludes that the Universe is likely to last for almost twice as long again as it has already existed, before collapsing back on itself in a 'big crunch'.

Linde's model relies on calculations made by Yun Wang, a cosmologist from the University of Oklahoma. "If we assume this model, the Universe will probably be safe for the next 24 billion years," Linde has said.