We’ve never known
more about the universe than we do right
now—and that’s precisely the problem.
Every significant astronomical discovery of
the past 50 years—afterglow from the
big bang, evidence of dark matter,
planets circling distant stars, just to name a few—has helped to create an ever-larger and more perplexing set of cosmic questions: Is there life on those faraway planets? How
did the first stars form after the big bang?