Cosmology

Cosmology is the study of the universe as a whole, its origin, its structure, and its fate. It begins with the Big Bang, the moment roughly 13.8 billion years ago when space itself began expanding from an extraordinarily dense, hot state, and traces everything that followed: the formation of the first atoms, the birth of galaxies, and the large-scale web of structure we observe today. Much of modern cosmology is built on two great unknowns. Dark matter, an invisible substance that outweighs ordinary matter roughly five to one, and dark energy, the mysterious pressure accelerating the universe's expansion. Together they make up the overwhelming majority of everything that exists, and neither has ever been directly observed. This page collects Astrinova's reporting on the field, from the universe's earliest moments to the open questions still shaping cosmology today.