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The genius Cambridge professor co-authored a new research paper about the collapse of our universe as the stars’ energy runs out and what happened before the Big Bang.

The much-loved scientist’s funeral is today at 2pm in Cambridge, and thousands are set to flock from across the world to pay their final respects.

The theoretical physicist, who died on March 14, wrote how our universe will fade into nothingness as the stars rapidly lose their energy.

The paper also revealed how the esteemed professor's colleagues could try to detect evidence of a multiverse from a spaceship – proving our world is one of many universes created by “Big Bangs”.

(Image: GETTY)

(Image: GETTY)

Hawking also explained before he died that there was no such thing as time before the Big Bang.

Before the origin of the universe, our current concept of “time” didn’t exist, and there was simply a bent state of spacetime according to Professor Hawking.

Hawking said: “Since events before the Big Bang have no observational consequences, one may as well cut them out of the theory, and say that time began at the Big Bang.

“Events before the Big Bang, are simply not defined because there’s no way one could measure what happened at them.”

Professor Thomas Herzog, Hawking’s co-author on “A Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation,” shared a sombre thought about how Hawking would never get the nobel Prize he deserved.

He said: “(Prof Hawking) has often been nominated for the Nobel and should have won it.

“Now he never can.”

Hawking died aged 76 following an almost lifelong battle with motor neurone disease and astounding doctors with his persistence.

His last focus before passing away was the pursuit of trying to make multiverses a testable theory, bridging the gap between theoretical physics and “testable scientific framework”.

Scientists have scrutinised his recent work, as its controversial nature caused waves among boffins.

Others have hailed the genius’ theories as bringing a fresh set of ideas to a field slowly becoming stale.