Cosmology and astrophysics into the next decade

Prof. Matias Zaldarriaga, IAS Princeton,

Heinrich Hertz Lecture 2021

Over the past decades we have seen remarkable improvements in our understanding of the Cosmos. We have been able to determine the composition of the Universe, its age and expansion history with outstanding precision. We have gathered very interesting clues about the initial conditions of the hot Big Bang and developed models that can explain them. We have discovered new phenomena and exotic objects and have been able to use them as tools to learn about Cosmology. This lecture will summarize our current understanding of the properties and history of our Universe and focus on some of the open questions in the field and describe some of the ongoing efforts to try to answer them.