Settled once and for all

The Universe will expand for ever, at an ever-increasing rate, Nasa scientists are to announce. Glad that is settled. No more steady-state limbo or big crunch to be afraid of.
All they had to do was measure temperature differences (down to millionths of degrees) in the Cosmic Background Radiation.

CNN also has the story. Along with this useful info:

The universe formed about 13.7 billion years ago, give or take about 200 million years.

Only about 4 percent of the universe is composed of atoms -- the "ordinary matter" making up the physical universe we know. About 23 percent is "cold, dark matter," about which scientists know little, and 73 percent is "exotic dark energy," about which they know even less