Stephen Hawking predicted 'end of the universe' 2 weeks before death

It turns out that a theory explaining how we might detect parallel universes and prediction for the end of the world was proposed and completed by physicist Stephen Hawking shortly before he died.

Stephen Hawking was working right up until his death last week on his final work – A Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation – which is currently being reviewed by a leading scientific journal.

According to reports, the work predicts that the universe would eventually end when stars run out of energy.

However, Hawking also theorised in his final work that scientists could find alternate universes using probes on space ships, allowing humans to form an even better understanding of our own universe, what else is out there and our place in the cosmos.

The physicist’s final work was published alongside his co-author, Professor Thomas Hertog, of KU Leuven University in Belgium.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Prof Hertog said, “He has often been nominated for the Nobel and should have won it. Now he never can.” The professor argued that Hawking could have won that prize for his work on this final paper.

Hawking died last Wednesday in Cambridge at the age of 76, having suffered from a rare form of motor neuron disease since 1964 that left him in a wheelchair with very little muscular mobility.

To communicate with others, Hawking used a speech synthesiser that allowed him to speak with a computerised voice that had an American accent.

He was perhaps best known for the publication of his landmark book A Brief History of Time. Published in 1988, it went on to sell more than 10 million copies.