Very distant supernovae—which we see as they were billions of years ago—help us understand the evolution of the universe. RIVUXG

(NASA; ESA; and A. Riess, STScI)

So far in this book we have cataloged the contents of the universe. Our scope has ranged from subatomic objects to superclusters of galaxies hundreds of millions of light-years across. In between, we have studied planets, moons, and stars.

But now we turn our focus beyond the objects we find in the universe to the nature of the universe itself—the subject of the science called cosmology. How large is the universe? What is its structure? How long has it existed, and how has it changed over time?

In this chapter we will see that the universe is expanding. This expansion began with an event at the beginning of time called the Big Bang. We will see direct evidence of the Big Bang in the form of microwave radiation from space. This radiation is the faint afterglow of a primordial fireball that filled all space shortly after the beginning of the universe.

Will the universe continue to expand forever, or will it eventually collapse back on itself? We will find that to predict the future of the universe, we must first understand what happened in the remote past. To this end, astronomers study luminous supernovae like the example shown in the above images. These can be seen across billions of light-years and so can tell us about conditions in the universe billions of years ago. We will see how recent results from such supernovae, as well as from studies of the Big Bang’s afterglow, have revolutionized our understanding of cosmology and given us new insights into our place in the cosmos.