Part 6/8:
Penrose’s singularity theorem had far-reaching implications beyond just black holes. Inspired by his work, Stephen Hawking applied the singularity concept to cosmology, suggesting that similar geodesic behavior could indicate a singular point in time—the Big Bang—where time itself began.
This realization forged a path toward understanding the universe's origins, forming the basis of the Penrose-Hawking singularity theorems, which posited that the conditions of general relativity imply a need for a unified theory that accounts for quantum mechanics.