Articles
Note that the entire January 2021 issue of Astronomy magazine was devoted to cosmology.
Adler, D. “A Cold, Lonely Death.” Astronomy (January 2021): 64. A brief introduction to the far future of the universe.
Croswell, K. “The Lithium Problem.” Sky & Telescope (May 2022): 20. Predictions of the abundance of lithium from the Big Bang theory don’t seem to agree with what’s seen in the oldest stars.
Fernandez, E. “Dark Energy: A Brief History.” Sky & Telescope (February 2024: 26. How the idea originated and has evolved.
Flam, F. “What Came Before the Big Bang.” Sky & Telescope (February 2019): 16. New ideas about multiverses and other solutions to the question of origins.
Garrison, D. “The First Ten Seconds.” Sky & Telescope (September 2021): 22. Understanding the physics of the earliest times of the universe.
Hall, S. “Lighting a Cosmic Fuse.” Sky & Telescope (June 2019): 14. On using Type Ia supernovae as distance indicators, and the challenge of whether they are standard candles (bulbs).
Johnson-Groh, M. “Dark Stars come into the Light.” Astronomy (October 2018): 18. The possibility that the early universe had dark stars, made in part of dark matter.
Kruesi, L. “Decoding the Cosmic Microwave Background.” Astronomy (August 2018): 44. On what it is and what it can tell us.
Kruesi, L. “How Planck Has Redefined the Universe.” Astronomy (October 2013): 28. Good review of what this space mission has told us about the CMB and the universe.
Loeb, A. “Exploring the Shape of Space-time.” Astronomy (January 2021): 56. Brief introduction to curved space-time and what observations show.
Nadis, S. “Sizing Up Inflation.” Sky & Telescope (November 2005): 32. Nice review of the origin and modern variants on the inflationary idea.
Naeye, R. “Tension at the Heart of Cosmology.” Astronomy (June 2019): 20. Disagreements in the measurement of the Hubble constant.
Naze, Y. “The Priest, the Universe, and the Big Bang.” Astronomy (November 2007): 40. On the life and work of Georges Lemaître.
Odenwald, S. “The Origins of Time.” Astronomy (May 2022): 16. Modern ideas from quantum physics and string theory.
Odenwald, S. “Imagining our Infant Universe.” Astronomy (April 2022): 16. On the GUT and Planck eras of the early universe.
Reddy, F. “How the Universe Will End.” Astronomy (September 2014): 38. Brief discussion of local and general future scenarios.
Rimmer, A. “The Hubble Constant: Tension and Release.” Sky & Telescope (March 2022): 14. On the disagreement between different methods of measuring the constant.
Schilling, G. “Constant Controversy.” Sky & Telescope (June 2019): 22. On different methods of measuring the Hubble constant and the challenge they present.
Woo, M. “The Dark Energy Enigma.” Sky & Telescope (May 2018): 14. About its discovery and what it might be.
Websites
A Primer about the Cosmic Microwave Background by Professor Wayne Hu: https://background.uchicago.edu/. Includes sections for beginners and material at an intermediate level.
Cosmic Times Project: http://cosmictimes.gsfc.nasa.gov/. James Lochner and Barbara Mattson have compiled a rich resource of twentieth-century cosmology history in the form of news reports on key events, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Cosmology Primer: https://preposterousuniverse.com/cosmologyprimer/. Caltech Astrophysicist Sean Carroll offers a non-technical site with brief overviews of many key topics in modern cosmology.
How Big Is the Universe?: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/how-big-universe.html. A clear essay by a noted astronomer Brent Tully summarizes some key ideas in cosmology and introduces the notion of the acceleration of the universe.
The Trouble with the “Big Bang”: https://nautil.us/the-trouble-with-the-big-bang-238547/. A helpful analysis by an articulate physicist, Sabine Hossenfelder, of the confusion in popular media about whether “The Big Bang” refers to the event at the beginning of time, or to the multi-faceted theory of how the universe evolved, especially in its early days.
Universe 101: WMAP Mission Introduction to the Universe: http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/. Concise NASA primer on cosmological ideas from the WMAP mission team.
Videos
Alan Guth Explains Inflation at the Beginning of Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEXDgpttmyc. This excerpt from a discussion at the World Science Festival 2012 has a succinct introduction by the “father” of inflation theory (2:53).
Cosmic Inflation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uj0HZ3HLFw. Dr. Don Lincoln explains the inflationary hypothesis of cosmology and why it is needed to explain things about the universe (9:15).
From the Big Bang to the Nobel Prize and on to the James Webb Space Telescope and the Discovery of Alien Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exc0D7LXnNA&list=PL4A9F607D06A088C6. A public talk by Dr. John Mather, NASA Goddard (video is in five parts). His Nobel Prize talk from December 8, 2006 can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP4t5lmz940 (34:15).
Images of the Infant Universe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0AqCwElyUk. Dr. Lloyd Knox’s 2014 public talk on the latest discoveries about the CMB and what they mean for cosmology (1:16).
Origins of the Universe 101: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdPzOWlLrbE. This video from National Geographic is a brief overview of the epochs of the Big Bang, from the beginning, through the many changes as the universe cooled, to the structures we see today (5:49).
Planck Exposes Ancient Light of Our Universe: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/planck-exposes-ancient-light-of-our-universe/. How we can isolate the cosmic microwave background radiation on images taken with this space telescope (0:58).
Planck Maps the Dawn of Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytLbP60zVgo. 2013 summary of the work of the Planck mission, featuring interviews with key scientists (12:00).
Supernovae and the Discovery of the Accelerating Universe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D6cwrl0CxA. A public lecture by Nobel Laureate Adam Riess in 2019 on how we discovered the need for dark energy (58:35).
The Anthropic Principle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm9ZtYkdkEQ. A section of a program in which Richard Dawkins, a biologist who is a well-known atheist, has a discussion with George Coyne (the chief astronomer from the Vatican Observatory, who is a priest) about the anthropic principle and what it means for belief in God (7:13).
Three Degrees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttuhcZjSSxc. A 1976 film about Penzias and Wilson’s discovery of the cosmic background radiation, with interesting historical footage (26:45).
When Speed Matters: The Discovery of the Accelerating Universe (ESOCast #40): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inZSOgHuIlE. An introduction to how astronomers discovered that the expansion of the universe is accelerating (7:00).