Thanks to cutting edge technology, scientists can peer deeper into space than ever before. The audio tracks in this album feature Dr Robert Lambourne and Dr Stephen Serjeant of The Open University's Department of Physics and Astronomy. They introduce the origin of relativistic cosmology and share the latest ideas about the structure and evolution of the universe. Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicts the existence of black holes and gravitational waves, and the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation allows cosmologists to picture the universe as it looked over 13 billion years ago. The next generation of infrared telescopes and land-based arrays heralds a new era of precision cosmology, and might shed light on one of the greatest mysteries of modern science - the dark sector. Just what is dark matter and why do we think that dark energy must exist? This album is an introduction to The Open University course S383 The relativistic Universe.
The discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background began an era of precision cosmology. But the theory of inflation remains one of the great questions in cosmology today