cosmogony

Cosmogony is the study of the origins of the universe and its major components. The term comes from Greek kosmos "world" and genesis "origin" or "creation." In scholarly use, cosmogony distinguishes origin narratives and hypothetical processes that produce the cosmos from cosmology, the study of the structure, history, and laws governing the universe.

Historically, many cultures offered cosmogonies in myth and ritual. Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Hindu, Chinese, and Greek traditions describe creation by deities, primordial waters, or cosmic eggs, often presenting a sequence of emergence and ordering. These narratives vary in mechanism and scope but share a concern with how order arises from chaos.

Modern scientific cosmogony identifies the origin of the universe with the Big Bang, a hot, dense state estimated to have formed about 13.8 billion years ago. After rapid expansion and cooling, light elements were synthesized in Big Bang nucleosynthesis, followed by the formation of atoms, stars, and galaxies. The large-scale structure is explained in part by dark matter and, later, dark energy, with inflation proposed to explain early uniformity.

Cosmogony today thus encompasses both mythic and scientific explanations, often used to compare cultural worldviews with empirical models of cosmic origins.