An international group of scientists from has been working on an ambitious project whose goal is to simulate on a supercomputer the evolution of the entire universe, from just after the Big Bang until the present.
Recent astronomical measurements, scientists say, cannot rule out the possibility that in a few billion years a mysterious force permeating space-time will be strong enough to blow everything apart, shred rocks, animals, molecules and finally even atoms in a last seemingly mad instant of cosmic self-abnegation.
Cosmologists debate the anthropic principle and the existence of multiple universes at a recent conference.
A powerful satellite has captured the best picture ever taken of the infant universe, an image so detailed that scientists said it answers some of the most important questions about the cosmos, including when it was born and how it will probably die.
NASA has proved the existence of "dark energy", a cosmic force that counteracts gravity and will keep the universe expanding forever. The discovery effectively demolishes the theory that life will be wiped out in a "Big Crunch" when the universe collapses, and should end decades of academic dispute over the forces at work on the universe.
Some cosmologists imagine universes sprouting from one another in an endless geometric progression. Others imagine island universes floating and even colliding in a fifth dimension. Some cosmologists say the observable universe could be only a small patch in a much vaster ensemble bred endlessly in a chain of big bangs.
Cosmology is coming into focus as cosmologists are beginning to agree with one another. Blessed with new instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope and other space-based observatories, a new generation of their giant cousins on the ground and ever-faster computer networks, cosmology is entering "a golden age" in which data are finally outrunning speculation.