so im quite curious (not a physics or astronomy student) and even after some research on the internet i am still slightly confused. can anyone give some brief explanations of facts that support the big rip?

Dark energy, which pushes things apart, is growing as a fraction of the total mass-energy of the universe. At sometime in the future it would be big enough to overcome all other forces, which hold things together.

Of course, this require extrapolating observed facts far outside the observed range. We might just as well end in a "big freeze", where everything continues to move apart, but not necessarily rip apart on smaller scale.

Of course, this require extrapolating observed facts far outside the observed range. We might just as well end in a "big freeze", where everything continues to move apart, but not necessarily rip apart on smaller scale.

 

Agreed - in the absence of real knowledge I still think this is the most supported idea; in the end, there will just be blackholes slowly radiating the last of their mass off as very very long wave radiation.

 

BTW - this is kinda presuming that there is proton decay - and I am not sure that anyone has seen this yet