 Of
course, even the apparent success of the big bang theory and the most
successful of observational programmes over the next decade will still
leave many cosmological questions unanswered. Was there really, as
many cosmologists now suggest, an inflationary epoch of ultra-rapid
expansion, very close to the beginning of the big bang, that drove
some parts of the Universe so far apart that they are only now coming
back into view of one another? Is it really true that a great deal
of matter, perhaps 99% of all the matter in the Universe, takes the
form of non-luminous dark matter currently detectable only
through its gravitational influence on visible forms of matter? Is
there also some strange dark energy in space, causing the Universe
to increase its rate of expansion? And, perhaps above all, where did
the hot, dense state that initiated the big bang come from? Can it
really be the case that origin of space and time lies in some quantum
cosmology born by fusing together the quantum physics of the very
small and the relativistic physics of the whole of space and time?
Some or all of these questions seem likely to persist irrespective
of the discoveries ahead. Only time (and space) will tell which.
|
