Write a brief essay/article (for a popular, high visibility news magazine like TIME, NEWSWEEK or SCIENCE NEWS ) that explains the joys and challenges of scientific discovery for one of the hottest topics in astronomy today:
You may entitle the story as you wish, but deal with the above question. Provide some historical (even if recent) perspective, describe what observations and theory are relevant to the problem, and what is likely to happen in the near future that makes for a prominent and evolving news story. Emphasize the current outstanding puzzles in the lead-in to the story, and return to it again at the end. We may be fairly certain that there was a big bang beginning (though you should explain the reasoning), but many questions have arisen for instance about an early period of rapid inflation, about dark matter and vacuum energy needed if the universe were to be flat, about the scale and level of fluctuations in CMB detected with new experiments, and the possibility that the expansion of the universe may be accelerating.
This article may occupy about two full pages plus spill in TIME, so your text should occupy a maximum of ten double-spaced pages of typed text and figures. Include story headlines, indicate (and include if you can) illustrations that help to make your story exciting (sketches of figures can suffice). Attributed quotes from real (or hypothetical) interviews add a personal touch; even interview your friends! The course web page paths to the `McCray Hypertext', and especially his `Lesson 12: Origin and Fate of the Universe', are an excellent resource to exploit (including cruising for figures to insert in your story), and so too are the other sets under `Web Links'. Our newest secondary text by Coles on `Cosmology: A Very Short Introduction' is a very good resource for the latest puzzles and issues.
Please turn in a paper copy of your article.