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# Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

- understand the basis of modern cosmology based on the hot big bang
- summarise the main candidate dark matter particles, and the prospects for directly detecting them
- compare models to explain the late-time acceleration of the Universe’s expansion, i.e. dark energy and the cosmological constant
- discuss observational prospects for understanding the nature of dark energy
- explain the theoretical problems that led to the theory of inflation, how an early inflationary period solves them and how researchers are investigating inflation.

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OpenLearn - Unsolved problems in cosmology
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