{"id":45450,"date":"2023-06-06T10:36:51","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T10:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=118985"},"modified":"2023-06-06T11:32:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T11:32:32","slug":"the-biggest-questions-about-the-universe-yet-to-be-answered-by-science","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/the-biggest-questions-about-the-universe-yet-to-be-answered-by-science\/","title":{"rendered":"The biggest questions about the Universe yet to be answered by science"},"content":{"rendered":"

Humanity has learned a lot, but many cosmological questions remain <\/p>

By Govert Schilling\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 06 June 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Over the past decades, scientists have unravelled a lot of cosmological mysteries.<\/p>\n

In particular, detailed observations of the cosmic microwave background<\/a> by the European Space Agency\u2019s Planck mission, as well as large-scale surveys of the three-dimensional distribution of galaxies<\/a>, provided so much information about the early stages and the later evolution of the Universe as to warrant the use of the phrase \u2018precision cosmology\u2019.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, astronomers are left with an annoying number of unsolved cosmological riddles.<\/p>\n

Apart from the fact that no one knows what (if anything) happened before the Big Bang<\/a>, there\u2019s no consensus on the hypothesis of cosmological inflation \u2013 an extremely early and brief phase of exponential expansion without which a number of properties of the Universe, like its homogeneity and lack of large-scale curvature, would remain unexplained.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, although cosmologists know the Universe contains 68.5 per cent of dark energy, 26.6 per cent of dark matter and a mere 4.9 per cent of \u2018normal\u2019 matter (atomic nuclei), the true nature of both dark energy and dark matter is\na mystery.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, we don\u2019t know about the long-term future of the Universe, and no one knows why the particles and forces in nature have the masses, charges, strengths and other properties they do.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in the June 2023 issue of <\/strong><\/em>BBC Sky at Night Magazine.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n