But reaching even farther back in time—into the first seconds and fractions of a second after the Big Bang—we transition from having incomplete information to having essentially no direct observations on which we can confidently rely. This era remains hidden from our view, buried beneath as-yet-impenetrable layers of energy, distance, and time. Our understanding of this period of cosmic history is, in many respects, little more than an informed guess, based on inference and extrapolation. Yet it is clear that these first moments are the key to many of our most urgent and enduring cosmic
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