Our universe won't be extinguished like a candle in the distant future to become a cold and barren place, as is believed by most cosmologists.
Its current expansion will slow, halt and then rebound inwards to begin a new "big bang" cycle.
So believes controversial theoretical physicist turned cosmologist Prof Geoffrey Burbidge, who last night presented a challenging talk on how the universe was formed.
Based at the University of California, San Diego, a former director of the US National Observatory at Kitts Peak and a fellow of the Royal Society, Prof Burbidge and others have helped explain how all of the heavier elements could form inside stars.
In more recent times he has annoyed Big Bang theorists who believe all mass, energy and space time was formed at an infinitely small point in a huge explosion that triggered unending expansion.
Instead, he holds that the universe exists in a "quasi-steady state" where cycles of expansion and then contraction are punctuated by a number of "mini big bangs" that create new matter.
He delivered his Academy Times lecture last night at Dublin Castle during the International Astronomical Union Colloquium on high-energy radiation sources in the universe.
The lecture was organised by The Irish Times and the Royal Irish Academy, with sponsorship from Depfa bank.
Scientists should approach new theories on the creation of the universe without prejudice, Prof Burbidge advised.
"We never can know but we are always certain," he said of the jealously guarded theories held by scientists.
