JimboLittle said:
..., could it eventually explode in the same manner the Universe did when the Big Bang happened?
"in the same manner"
It's important to realize that the Big Bang was not an explosion in the ordinary sense of material blasting outwards from a central point, out into surrounding empty space.
The explosion image is a common misconception. Please help us stamp it out. Take a look at the Scientific American article called "Misconceptions about the Big Bang" that is at the princeton.edu link in my signature.
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In the ordinary picture, a big bang event does not expand out into some pre-existing space, it causes its own space.
A common research model of how this comes about is called the "big bounce"---this occurs as a result of prior collapse. When the prevailing theory of gravity, namely General Relativity, is put in quantum terms, it appears to predict that gravity becomes repellent at very high densities. So an intense contraction can actually trigger a re-expansion.
Bounce models are increasingly studied, both using equations and using computer models.
To get a rough idea of the research activity (not to read any of these papers) here's a sample of stuff published 2007-2009:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=FIND+DK+QUANTUM+COSMOLOGY+AND+DATE+%3E+2006&FORMAT=www&SEQUENCE=citecount%28d%29
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So far the main kind of bounce that has been studied is where a full universe collapses (what people used to call a crunch) and that causes the bounce resulting in the kind of situation which we see.
There have been a few papers exploring the idea that instead of a full universe collapse you could have a black hole collapse that would lead to a bounce. Some authors names are Kevin Vandersloot, Christian Boehmer, and Dah-wei Chiou. Be very cautious about reading too much into this. It is faintly conceivable that a black hole collapse could lead, could
already have led, to a bounce and an expanding new region of space, a "baby universe".
But this idea has not attracted more than about half a dozen researchers, mostly young, and has yet to gain any significant credibility.
What has attracted a lot of people and activity is the full universe collapse and bounce idea. Brandenberger, an influential guy at McGill, just put out a paper on this. There are at least 20 people working on it at various institutions around the world, including prominent figures.
