Term
Big Bang
Not an explosion in space, but the expansion of space itself from a state of extreme density and heat. Hawking keeps coming back to it to ask what “before” could mean.
Brief Answers to the Big Questions, Stephen Hawking
Explained in
- Brief Answers to the Big Questions, Stephen Hawking
- A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
The start of the universe's expansion from a very hot, dense state about 13.8 billion years ago.
- A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, Stephen Hawking
The very dense and hot early state of the universe from which, as we understand it today, its expansion began.
- Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Neil deGrasse Tyson
The accepted scientific model in which the universe was extremely hot and dense about 14 billion years ago and has been expanding and cooling ever since.