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Why Do We Want to Know?

It is a fundamental fact of human nature that we are inquisitive. We want answers! Over years, decades, and centuries science has been guiding our thought processes, helping us find answers to age old questions: is the Universe all there is? Did it have a beginning, and will it have an end? These questions were once firmly in the realm of philosophy, but with advances in our technology and our understanding, we are now just beginning to get the answers — but behind them are still more questions. The Universe did have a beginning, 13.7 billion years ago. But how did that happen? What did the universe look like when it was very young? Will the expansion of the Universe, so recently understood to be accelerating, continue forever, or is there another possibility?

SNAP will be able to provide needed data so that scientists can continue to answer these most basic and profound of all questions — and, no doubt, will raise even more questions we have not yet thought to ask.