在广义相对论中，强形式和弱形式的宇宙审查假说之提出，是为了从数学上解释引力奇点的结构。

在爱因斯坦场方程的解中存在隐藏于事件视界之内因而无法从时空的其他部分观察的奇点。没有隐藏于视界之内的奇点被称为“裸奇点”。弱形式的宇宙审查假说猜测，除了大爆炸是裸奇点之外，宇宙中不存在任何其他的裸奇点。这个假说由罗杰·彭罗斯在1969年提出。宇宙审查假说和所谓的编年审查是有所不同的。后者中每一条封闭类时曲线都穿过事件视界，从而可能阻止观察者对因果违背现象进行观察。

The weak and the strong cosmic censorship hypotheses are two mathematical conjectures about the structure of singularities arising in general relativity.

Singularities that arise in the solutions of Einstein's equations are typically hidden within event horizons, and therefore cannot be seen from the rest of spacetime. Singularities that are not so hidden are called naked. The weak cosmic censorship hypothesis was conceived by Roger Penrose in 1969 and posits that no naked singularities, other than the Big Bang singularity, exist in the universe.