In summary, cosmology is considered difficult for undergraduates because it involves complex mathematical models, abstract and theoretical concepts, an interdisciplinary nature, lack of experimental data, high-level mathematics, and a theoretical nature..
To prepare yourself for this career, consider taking undergraduate courses in mathematics, science, philosophy and astronomy.
Majoring in astronomy may help prepare you for a career as a cosmologist, as it provides you with an introduction to many concepts and theories that are important in cosmology..
Greek philosophers Aristarchus of Samos, Aristotle, and Ptolemy proposed different cosmological theories.
The geocentric Ptolemaic system was the prevailing theory until the 16th century when Nicolaus Copernicus, and subsequently Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei, proposed a heliocentric system..
The origins of today's cosmology began with the observation in the early 1500s by Nicolaus Copernicus that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
The next step was the discovery in the late 1600s by Isaac Newton that objects in space behaved according to the same laws of physics as objects on Earth..
Nevertheless, cosmologists have been able to reconstruct a lot of the history of the universe from a limited amount of observational clues
This culminated in the CDM model which describes the cosmological evolution from 1 second after the Big Bang until today, 13
8 billion year laterCosmologists refer to ordinary matter (nuclei and electrons) as baryons
12 We will use the term \radiation" to denote anything for which the pressure is about a third of the energy density, P = 1
This is the case for a gas of relativistic particles, for
Author Daniel Baumann,Universiteit van Amsterdam Daniel Baumann is a world-leading theoretical cosmologist
He obtained his doctorate from Princeton University in 2008, after which he was a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton
