The Universe was born 13.7 billion years ago and time as we know it
began with it. Understanding the story of the Universe and the Big Bang
is a quest for the past. A split second after the birth of the
Universe, all matter and radiation appeared and were contained at one
very dense point. Physics at the smallest and largest scales are both
needed to understand these origins; this is the aim of cosmology and
astroparticle physics.