From Pigeon Poop to the Origin of the Universe
The term, ‘Big Bang’ was coined by the English astronomer and cosmologist Sir Fred Hoyle in 1949. But when he first employed it, during a BBC radio broadcast on astronomy, it was meant to be derisive in nature. At that time in his life Hoyle did not accept the fact that the universe had a beginning. Instead, he believed in what is called the Steady State Universe. When he said the universe began with a ‘Big Bang’, he actually meant to belittle the concept. Now it has come to be accepted by the great majority of astrophysicists.
Pursuit (1952) by Boris Anrep, part of a series of mosaics of the Modern Virtues in the entrance hall of the National Gallery, London. It depicts the astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle as a steeplejack climbing up to the stars. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
A Singularity Explodes
The basic concept is that the universe one looks at today through powerful radio telescopes and the vast technological resources now available to scientists everywhere, began some 13.8 billion years ago when an almost infinitely small, infinitely hot, and infinitely complex singularity that contained the potential for everything that is, suddenly exploded. As it expanded it carried all of space and time with it.
