Is the constant change of the Universe always different, or does it repeat itself, again and again forever?

Question

In a finite Universe all the different combinations will eventually run out.

Answer 1

The prevalent theory today is that the Universe is expanding and is going to keep expanding.

It's a matter of density that the Universe had in the beginning. If it was a little bit more dense than it was, it would collide after a while. (It probably would have collided back together already. Big Crunch theory) If it was a little bit less dense than it was, it would have expanded so rapidly that stars, galaxies, planets and so on couldn't have formed.

The Universe that we have actually has right exactly this perfect density, so that it would keep expanding and not collide and that it wouldn't expand too fast, that stars couldn't form.

"God" was a master in fine tuning the Universe ;)

A theory that explains what might happen to the Universe if it keeps expanding is the Big Rip.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rip

Answer 2

No body knows.

Thre are THEORIES that say that the universe will expand for ever and ever.

There are other THEORIES that say that the universe's expansion will slowdown, stop, and reverse itself.  This is called "The Big Crunch" theory.

So far as I know, nobody  thinks the universe is "static" (standing still). At least not any more -- but they used to.

But the universe has been around for a LOOONNNNGGGG time, and we'ver only be able to measure parts of it for about 100 years.  So we can't know for certain what will happen in the future.

So all of the theories are just that -- theories.

you DO know the difference between THEORY and FACT, don't you?  THEORIES are just guesses at how something works.  Scientists make up experimentes to prove their theories.  Sometimes they are right, sometimes they are wrong, but they ALWAYS learn something.

When the experiments are done, you have FACTS -- ideas that can be proven, or shown to be true -- or false.

Right now, it looks like it is a FACT that the universe is expanding, but it is only a THEORY that it will expand forever, or that it will stop expanding and then "crunch".