The End of Cosmology?

Cosmology, from the Greek: κοσμολογία (cosmologia, κόσμος (cosmos) order + λογος (logos) word, reason, plan) is the quantitative (usually mathematical) study of the Universe in its totality, and by extension, humanity’s place in it. Though the word cosmology is recent (first used in 1730 in Christian Wolff’s Cosmologia Generalis), study of the Universe has a long history involving science, philosophy, esotericism, and religion.

A decade ago astronomers made the revolutionary discovery that the expansion of the universe is speeding up. They are still working out is implications. The quickening expansion will eventually pull galaxies apart faster than light, causing them to drop out of view. This process eliminates reference points for measuring expansion and dilutes the distinctive products of the big bang to nothingness. In short, it erases all the signs that a big bang ever occurred. To our distant descendants, the universe will look like a small puddle of stars in an endless, changeless void.What knowledge has the universe already erased? (via sciam)

Further reading

Physical cosmology : Cosmic Journey: A History of Scientific Cosmology from the American Institute of Physics

Esoteric cosmology : wikipedia

Religious cosmology: wikipedia