<p>The universe won't expand fast enough to rip atoms apart, but if dark energy turns out to be a fact it will expand fast enough to avoid gravitational collapse. Black holes won't be ripped apart, they will just carry on as normal, as will the galaxies they belong to. But as space expands the galaxies will move further and further apart, going their own separate ways with not enough gravity to keep them together, eventually fading away into the black nothingness of space. Further research may mean that dark energy will have to be revised or reinterpreted, so at the present time a collapsing, blue shifted universe can't be completely ruled out.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-30T20:51:11.013Z
This seems not to answer the question as presently stated, which posited a Big Rip.  I do agree that the available evidence points against the Big Rip scenario, but the data is so much at the edge of our capacities and the theories used to interpret it so much past the edge of *their* capacities, that no one can say firmly that a Big Rip is not possible.
Mark Olson
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-30T16:05:51.227Z
2019-07-30T16:05:51.227Z
Michael Walsby
<p>If the universe expands fast enough to rip atoms apart, what will happen to black holes? Would they rip apart too? What would that be like? Would they expand along with the universe's expansion, or would their gravitational force be able to resist it?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-30T22:37:09.843Z
The event horizon of the BH would merge with the cosmological horizon, as described by the [de Sitter–Schwarzschild metric](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Sitter–Schwarzschild_metric).
pela
<black-hole>
What would happen to black holes during the Big Rip?
Stym
# What would happen to black holes during the Big Rip?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-07-30)

If the universe expands fast enough to rip atoms apart, what will happen to black holes? Would they rip apart too? What would that be like? Would they expand along with the universe's expansion, or would their gravitational force be able to resist it?

**Tags:** black-hole

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The event horizon of the BH would merge with the cosmological horizon, as described by the [de Sitter–Schwarzschild metric](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Sitter–Schwarzschild_metric).  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-07-30. Score: -5 | Accepted answer

The universe won't expand fast enough to rip atoms apart, but if dark energy turns out to be a fact it will expand fast enough to avoid gravitational collapse. Black holes won't be ripped apart, they will just carry on as normal, as will the galaxies they belong to. But as space expands the galaxies will move further and further apart, going their own separate ways with not enough gravity to keep them together, eventually fading away into the black nothingness of space. Further research may mean that dark energy will have to be revised or reinterpreted, so at the present time a collapsing, blue shifted universe can't be completely ruled out.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: This seems not to answer the question as presently stated, which posited a Big Rip.  I do agree that the available evidence points against the Big Rip scenario, but the data is so much at the edge of our capacities and the theories used to interpret it so much past the edge of *their* capacities, that no one can say firmly that a Big Rip is not possible.  

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