Universe

The night sky, unimaginably deep, is a breathtaking sight. About 3,000 stars can be seen with the naked eye, twinkling points of light that have inspired the human spirit since the dawn of time. Study of these stars and billions of other astronomical objects, based on data collected from visible-light telescopes, radio telescopes, and detectors for other wavelengths, can now reveal extraordinary information about the universe. Astronomers have used this to hypothesize about its origins in the Big Bang.