[ETL]

the future of the universe is not a happy one. As space expands it will rip everything apart, even atoms,

What is the basis for that? What can rip atoms, stars and everything else, apart is their entering a black hole. There is no evidence that I know of that suggests space expansion will or could at some eventual point rip objects apart.

[jpsb]

Well as space expands the distance between two points grows. At some point the distance is to great for gravity to keep matter together. That is then large objects (like the sun and the earth) start to fall apart. But the expansion continues and once again the distance between two points become so large that the strong force force can't keep small objects together. That is when atoms start to break up.

This is all just current theory of course and likely to changes as we learn more about our universe.

I am not an expert, but the theory suggests to me that space is a quantum quantity, in that only one piece of quantum matter can exist in one quantum of space. Other wise matter would simply be pulled into the larger space. Something must be preventing that, so I've assigned it (space) quantum characteristics.

[jpsb]

Oh, black holes get ripped apart too, if there are any that have not all ready evaporated in that far distance future.