ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Cosmic Evolution (book)

Hey little buddy! So, have you ever looked up at the stars at night and wondered where they all came from? Well, cosmic evolution is trying to answer that very question!

When the universe was first created, it was just a tiny, super hot and dense point called the big bang. Then, in less than a second, it expanded outwards super fast and created all the matter we know today! That matter eventually came together to form stars, galaxies, planets, and everything else in the universe.

Over billions of years, stars formed and exploded, and those explosions created new elements that didn't exist before. This allowed for even more complex things to form, like Earth and eventually, life!

Now, scientists study cosmic evolution to try and understand how all of these things came to be and how they've changed over time. It's like putting together a puzzle with pieces that are billions of years old!

So, in a nutshell, cosmic evolution is all about how the universe formed and changed over time to become what we see today. Pretty cool, huh?