In the first trillionth of a second, the four fundamental forces of nature—, Electromagnetism , and the Strong and Weak Nuclear forces —were unified as one. As the universe expanded and cooled, these forces "untangled," and the first particles of matter began to form. A crucial cosmic coincidence occurred when matter slightly outnumbered antimatter by a billion-to-one ratio; if they had been perfectly equal, they would have completely annihilated each other, leaving nothing behind but light. Invisible Architects: Dark Matter and Dark Energy
Fourteen billion years ago, everything we’ve ever known—every star, planet, and person—was packed into a space smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. In an event known as the , this tiny, hot, and incredibly dense point began to rapidly expand. Astrophysics For People In A Hurry
This invisible "frenemy" does not emit or reflect light but provides the gravitational glue that keeps galaxies from flying apart. It makes up roughly 85% of all matter. In the first trillionth of a second, the
The following story condenses the major scientific and philosophical milestones detailed in Neil deGrasse Tyson's . The Cosmic Origin Story Invisible Architects: Dark Matter and Dark Energy Fourteen
Discovered much later, this mysterious force acts as a "cosmological constant" that is currently driving the universe's expansion to accelerate. The Cosmic Perspective
For centuries, we thought we understood the "stuff" of the universe. However, modern astrophysics reveals that the matter we can see (stars, planets, and us) accounts for only about 5% of the cosmos. The rest is dominated by two invisible giants:
