Cosmology solved? Maybe.

For two decades the hot big-bang model as been referred to as the standard cosmology - and for good reason. For just as long cosmologists have known t hat there are fundamental questions that are not answered by the standard c osmology and point to a grander theory. The best candidate for that grander theory is inflation + cold dark matter. It holds that the Universe is hat, that slowly moving elementary particles left over from the earliest moment s provide the cosmic infrastructure, and that the primeval density inhomoge neities that seed all the structure arose from quantum fluctuations. There is now prima facie evidence that supports two basic tenets of this paradigm . An avalanche of high-quality cosmological observations will soon make thi s case stronger or will break it. Key questions remain to be answered; fore most among them are: identification and detection of the cold dark matter p articles and elucidation of the dark-energy component. These are exciting t imes in cosmology!