Will the Universe Continue to Expand Forever?

The universe won't ever stop expanding, but will spread out over trillions of years, stretching all matter and energy to such an extreme that our one universe will be separated into multiple universes. Inside these universes, the mysterious dark energy will materialize into normal matter and radiation.

Will the universe keep expanding forever?

The fate of the universe is determined by its density. The preponderance of evidence to date, based on measurements of the rate of expansion and the mass density, favors a universe that will continue to expand indefinitely, resulting in the "Big Freeze" scenario below.

Will the universe continue to expand or eventually contract because of gravity?

If the gravity within the universe is strong enough, it could reign in the expansion and cause the universe to contract. If not, the universe will continue to expand forever. Based on the matter we can see, such as galaxies, stars and planets, the density of the universe seems to be below the critical value.