INFLATION AFTER THE COSMIC BACKGROUND EXPLORER (COBE)

The success of the standard picture of the Hot Big Bang scenario, emphasizing the assumptions that have to be made in the initial conditions, is reviewed. A possible model which could account for these is then described The inflationary universe scenario is one of the most exciting theoretical ideas in cosmology, because it offers the opportunity of explaining much of the observed large scale structure. These observations and the constraints they imply for the scenario are discussed, with emphasis being placed on the recent remarkable results from the COsmic Background Explorer (COBE).