The Great Observatories
NASA astronomers use several kinds of telescopes in space and on the ground.
Each observes targets like stars, planets, and galaxies, but captures different wavelengths of light using various techniques to add to our understanding of these cosmic phenomenon..
Big Bang and Nucleosynthesis
When cosmic inflation stopped, the energy driving it transferred to matter and light – the big bang.
One second after the big bang, the universe consisted of an extremely hot (18 billion degrees Fahrenheit or 10 billion degrees Celsius) primordial soup of light and particles..
Cosmology studies how the history of the universe led to the stars, galaxies, and other features we can observe today.
Image courtesy of Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory.
Cosmology is the study of the origin, development, structure, history, and future of the entire universe..
Cosmology is the scientific study of the large scale properties of the universe as a whole.
It endeavors to use the scientific method to understand the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the entire Universe..
The Short Answer: The big bang is how astronomers explain the way the universe began.
It is the idea that the universe began as just a single point, then expanded and stretched to grow as large as it is right now—and it is still stretching.
The universe is a huge wide-open space that holds everything from the smallest particle to the biggest galaxy.
No one knows just how big the Universe is.
Astronomers try to measure it all the time.
They use a special instrument called a spectroscope to tell whether an object is moving away from Earth or toward Earth..
New ideas and major discoveries made during the 20th century transformed cosmology – the term for the way we conceptualize and study the universe – although much remains unknown
Here is the history of the universe according to cosmologists’ current theories
The study of cosmology uses the scientific method to understand the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the entire Universe
Like any field of science, cosmology involves the formation of theories or hypotheses about the universe which make specific predictions for phenomena that can be tested with observations
Here is the history of the universe according to cosmologists’ current theories
Around 138 billion years ago, the universe expanded faster than the speed of light for a fraction of a second, a period called cosmic inflation
Scientists aren’t sure what came before inflation or what powered it
