What came before the Big Bang?

Question asked by: knowitall

This is a fascinating question. We talk about the start of the universe and the occurrence of the big bang almost interchangeably, though of course logically these could be distinct events.

The big bang need not necessarily have been the start of the universe, or time 't' and indeed there is no direct evidence either way.

If the big bang was the start of the universe as we understand it, then the answer is 'nothing' as there was no universe before.

If there is an answer because there was a state pre-big bang then really your guess is as good as mine.

One possibility is that there was a universe like ours, that had itself come from a big bang but that after billions of years contracted and caused another big bang, after a rather big crunch.

The truth is that we will almost certainly never know for sure, but will only have theories based on the evidence we find out with increasing discoveries and one that perhaps best fits with the facts.
By: Unknown
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There are many different theories as to what came before the big bang. one theory is that there was an infinite amount of energy in a point of singularity and something triggered that point to 'bang' causing everything we see around us now, since, according to einstein, mass and energy can be converted back and forth. another theory is that there was already a universe here like ours. right now our universe is expanding but someday it will start to pull back together at the center of the universe and when the gravity and mass and heat becomes too intense it will turn to energy and eventually 'bang' causing an on-going cycle. going out on a limb there is another theory and my personal favorite. what if there was time before time? m-theory says that there are multiple universes and that 2 universes collided causing the big bang.
By: spencerj17

Date of comment: Fri, Jun 25th 2010

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