How does the universe work?

How does the universe work? Understanding the universe's birth and its ultimate fate are essential first steps to unveil the mechanisms of how it works. This, in turn, requires knowledge of its history, which started with the Big Bang.
Previous NASA investigations with the Cosmic Microwave Background Explorer (COBE) and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) have measured the radiation from the universe when it was only 300,000 years old, confirming theoretical models of its early evolution. With its improved sensitivity and resolution, ESA's Planck observatory probed the long wavelength sky to new depths during its 2-year survey, providing stringent new constraints on the physics of the first few moments of the universe. Moreover, the possible detection and investigation of the so-called B-mode polarization pattern on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) impressed by gravitational waves during those initial instants will provide clues for how the large-scale structures we observe today came to be.