ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Initial singularity

Okay, so imagine a big balloon. This balloon is getting bigger and bigger every second, so it's growing really fast. But way back in time, billions and billions of years ago, this balloon was really, really small. In fact, it was so small that it was even smaller than a tiny speck of dust!

Scientists think that this tiny speck of dust was the start of our universe. That's what they call the initial singularity. It was so small and dense that it had a lot of energy in it. And then, all of a sudden, it started to expand really fast.

As the universe expanded, it cooled down and changed in other ways too. Stars and galaxies started to form, and eventually, billions of years later, here we are! But the initial singularity was that tiny speck that started everything off. It's like the very first domino that started a chain reaction that led to everything we know and see around us today.