Fermilab Discovery Science Resources: Nine Questions

8. How did the universe come to be?

According to modern theories of cosmic evolution, the universe began with a singular explosion, followed by a burst of inflationary expansion. To understand inflation requires breakthroughs in our understanding of fundamental physics, quantum gravity and the ultimate unified theory. Although inflationary conditions are too high in energy to reproduce on Earth, we can observe their signatures, transmitted over the eons by their imprint on the relic matter we can still detect from that era. review.

Tevatron Experiments