Conceptual illustration representing the beginning of life and the universe with the Big Bang, and the end of life and the universe caused by the "Big Chill" (also called the "Big Freeze"). In this scenario, the universe continues to expand at an increasing speed. As this happens, the heat is dispersed throughout space as clusters, galaxies, stars and planets are all pulled apart. This causes it to get colder and colder until the temperature throughout the universe reaches absolute zero and the universe simply becomes too cold to sustain life. All that would remain are burned-out stars, cold dead planets and black holes.