I'm trying to wrap my head around space. Based on the articles that I've read, at the moment before the bang, space didn't exist. Then, during the big bang, space was born inside and expanded and continues to do so today.
Albert Einstein's take on this matter was that if you remove matter and energy from the universe, you remove space as well.
I couldn't find anything on what happens to space if the universe ends up in a "big crunch". If and when that happens, will space retract?