All the matter, space, and the time there ever has been or ever will be popped into existence 10 to 20 bllion years ago. This tiny, supercompressed point一a 'singularity' in the jargon of physicists一was unimaginably hot and packed with energy. It burst forth in a titanic explosion and, expanding and changing ever since, it has become the universe that we一 and who knows who else? 一 call home? If some cosmologists are right, it's the only universe there ever has been, but there's no way of knowing for sure.