what happened before the big bang?

Question

in your creative mind what happened before the big bang?

Answer 1

Since you asked us to be creative...

I think that there were many universes coexisting in a multi-dimensional reality, undulating through a hyperspatial metasphere, until two dancing universes happened to nudge each other, creating a tremendous explosion of matter and energy which ballooned off in yet another dimensional direction, resulting in what we call the Big Bang, soon to be followed by stars, planets and us.

Answer 2

The Big Bang theory is based on assumptions of what the universe looked like at some point far in the past. We call this the "beginning" because the Big Bang theory does not allow us to go further back than that time. In fact, our current understanding tells us that time, as we perceive it, cannot be extended before that time. This does not mean it does not exist. It simply means that we do not understand what it could have been like. It also means that we do not know what the word "before" would mean, when time itself cannot be understood. That is why most people (including myself, at times) say that there is no "before", before the Big Bang. The "Big Bang" is not a moment. For example, it was not an explosion. It is an expansion of space and the universe itself. It is still going on. We put the "beginning" at the first moment when we can understand what could be going on. As we run the clock backwards, we find that the universe, in the past, was hotter than today. If you go back far enough, you'd find that the temperature was so hot that we would not even understand what that means. (look up Planck Temperature). At that temperature, each point of the universe would have so much energy that each single point would be a black hole. And honestly, what goes on "before" each point is a black hole -- we do not know. Some scientists are working on theories that might extend the Big Bang theory into its "past" (explaining how the universe got to be in the condition needed to start the expansion) and on other theories that would replace the Big Bang theory (by finding other conditions for the "beginning" that could still explain expansion, without reaching the unexplainable temperature). But we have no way yet of verifying these theories. Years of work ahead.

Answer 3

Before the big bang, there was nothing, our known universe did not exist. There was no time or space, and even if there were space and time, there would have been no matter or energy there to do anything.

For a timeline of the big bang see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Big_Bang#The_very_early_universe

These pictures are also insightful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:CMB_Timeline300.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_timeline_of_the_Big_Bang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Universe_expansion2.png

All of this is, of course, according to the big bang theory, which may not be a "fact" but is an accepted theory (gravity, you know, isn't a "fact" either, it's only an accepted theory).

Answer 4

According to the Big Bang theory, which is accepted by the overwhelming majority of experts in the area, not only was matter created, but also time itself.

Thus, the question as to what happened before, is meaningless, sinc e there was no "before".

This is of course *extremely* difficult to accept, because in our lifetimes, we only have the experience of time flowing normally. For similar reasons quantum theory is very hard to accept, because it deals with things completely beyond our everyday experience.
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Answer 5

Nothing existed before the big bang,a nothing with a potential,the potential emerged a minimum time after time zero.

Answer 6

a couple of little bangs (it takes a few bangs to get the really big bang to spark the creation of the worlds in which we live in today)

Answer 7

if the process was on going, then it was previously something that had shrunk and explode again... if that's the case, then surely another big bang before and before... so it's like infinite thing...

Answer 8

Alas, there is no such place as "before the Big Bang."

Answer 9

The previous version of our universe was still shrinking and compressing and winding down...until it reached critical mass (about the size of a table spoon)...and...suddenly...

Big Bang.

Answer 10

That my lady is a question that plagues scientists who know much more on the subject than you or I.