If the universe is constantly expanding, how could the big crunch happen ?
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The idea behind the big crunch was that while the universe was expanding, that rate of expansion would slow over time and eventually reverse. Like throwing a ball attached to an elastic band – it will travel for a while, but eventually slow and return to the point of origin when the forces pulling it back overwhelmed the forces pushing it forward. The theory was that eventually gravitational forces would overcome expansion forces, pulling all the matter in the universe back to a single point – a new singularity.
That said, big crunch is not a popular theory anymore. From what we can tell, the speed of expansion is _accelerating_, not decelerating so the universe is unlikely to come back together. The current theory is that the universe will just keep on expanding until [heat death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe).
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