cosmology

Alternatively, the observatory’s measurements could undercut this hypothesis, a pillar in the current understanding of cosmology.

As an astronomer who studies cosmology and has written a book about early missions to Mars, I’ve been watching the sample return saga play out.

Some of their practices were canceled by colonialism; others, preserved in ice as Ötzi was, are dissolving with the melting permafrost, taking the visual keys to ancient cosmologies with them.

“I’m convinced that there are living sacrifices, but when it comes to the idea that there is some unifying cosmology at work for that length of time, I’m more cautious,” Bickle says.

The standard theory of cosmology—which says 95% of the universe is made up of an unknown energy we can’t see—has passed its strictest test yet.