If the density of dark energy is less than −1, then the Universe's expansion would continue to accelerate and the Observable Universe would continue to get smaller. Around 200 million years before the Big Rip, galaxy clusters like the Local Group or the Sculptor Group would be destroyed. Sixty million years before the Big Rip, all galaxies will begin to lose stars around their edges and will completely disintegrate in another 40 million years. Three months before the Big Rip, star systems will become gravitationally unbound, and planets will fly off into the rapidly expanding universe. Thirty minutes before the Big Rip, planets, stars, asteroids and even extreme objects like neutron stars and black holes will evaporate into atoms. 100 zeptoseconds (10−19 seconds) before the Big Rip, atoms would break apart. Ultimately, once the Rip reaches the Planck scale, cosmic strings would be disintegrated as well as the fabric of spacetime itself. The universe would enter into a "rip singularity" when all non-zero distances become infinitely large. Whereas a "crunch singularity" involves all matter being infinitely concentrated, in a "rip singularity", all matter is infinitely spread out.
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