Space - Prior to "The big bang"?

Question

The majority of scientists seem to concur that the universe began with "the big bang" what do you think existed before the big bang? I cant understand that at some point there was simply "nothing" as surely there must always be "something" if you understand my point. Arcane subject I know.

Answer 1

the big bang might have come from other dimensionial containers called branes crashing into each other like ripples on two lakes all within the 10th dimension.

They've ALWAYS been there, and never go away. time is only relative so forever and never really doesnt mean much.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4183875433858020781&q=parrelell+universes&total=1029&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4

we live in what we call a cyclic universe
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1953244.stm

lets make one of our own. just make sure you bring a magnetic monopole. we've been needing that for this experiment.
once the new universe is created it should immediatly be seperated off into its own universe, like ours was.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg19125591.500-create-your-own-universe.html

(I think this monopole could be within blackholes.)
We're not really sure what is happening in there on a quantum level.
matter and time and other dimensions are could be squished together in blackholes, ripping into the 10th where they can collide again. once they do they spilt off again.

just like a wormhole would due to its violation in the laws of thermodynamics.

the result would be called a white hole. still a disputed theory though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_hole

Answer 2

Space is not nothing. It is a "vacuum". There's a big difference. If space were nothing, light could not pass through it. You could not pass through it. Here's a bad analogy: suppose you are walking a long and come to a sheer drop off in the road. Perhaps an earthquake created a chasm. You cannot cross the chasm on foot. There is nothing for you to walk on. That is what "nothing" means. This is a bad analogy of course because light and birds can cross the gap. We tend to think of emptiness as being nothing, but that is just an approximation to reality. Even in a vacuum, space is still there. Space has properties that nothingness would not have. The vacuum of space is filled with lots of stuff: Electric and magnetic fields spread throughout space. Photons of light, neutrinos, gamma rays, and lots of sub-atomic particles are always bouncing around. All of these things use up the region of space they are in at the time. Space has the interesting property that no two objects can be in the same place at the same time -- this property has to come from some where. If space were nothing, why would there be any such rule? How could anything be in it? The idea that space is an infinite, 3D checkerboard is just an idea based on our human experience of space inside buildings. And more importantly, the vacuumof space is actually host for the creation of short lived particles -- called virtual particles. Matter lliterallypops into existence out of nothing in the vacuum of space. Theseparticles are typically created in pairs of oppositely charged members. Typically they flit around briefly before colliding with one another and aannihilatethemselves back into non-existence. The reason that scientists believe in the big bang theory is that astronomical observations show that all galaxies are flying apart -- in all directions. This implies that they were once closer together at some earlier time. Estimates are that this time was 13.8 billion years ago. To further complicate the issue, the universe is too young for the galaxies to reach their current positions after only 13.8 billion years. The speed of light limits their movements, but it does not limit the movement of space itself. So the current best explanation is "cosmic inflation." According to this idea, when the universe first formed a force field called "the inflaton field" caused space itself to spread out violently from its initial size. General relativity, which is peerlessly accurrate (so far at least), predicts that space and time are entangled into one compressible fluid-like substance "space-time". So if the space were all compressed into some tiny, proton-sized original condition, the time would be compressed in there with it.

Answer 3

Why must there have been something. According to the big bang theory the creation of the fundamental particles was literally creation ex nihilo. After a relatively time of a few tens of thousands of years hydrogen atoms began to form from the fundamental particles, and that provided the raw material for the stars.

Whether or not there is anything beyond the universe, and which existed before it, is not something the physical sciences can comment upon because, by definition, their concern is the universe rather whatever (if anything) exists beyond it.

Answer 4

Here are my two cents. I challenge the big bang theory. It is just that a theory, an idea, something that could have been. Keep in mind that all we know is based on observations over a limited timespan from one location in the universe.

What if our math is wrong? What if all our extreme distance calculations are wrong? What if the universe is not as big or small or expanding or contracting as we think it is?

Remember all previous astronomers, Gallileo, Kepler, Copernicus, Newton, etc. worked the numbers to match the observations. This means that our physics is based on explaning observations. The marging of uncertainty is pretty big when working so close to infinity.

So who knows. Was there ever a big bang? Is the universe really expanding? Is the universe as big as we think it is?

Your ideas are as good as any.

By the way, visit the new Google Earth and try Google sky. Its like having your own planetarium.

Answer 5

There was no space, no time - nowhere to stand and watch and wait - its not a concept easy to understand, its less than nothing. If you have in mind a black void into which a fiery ball appears - that is wrong - the universe cannot and could not be observed from outside - because there is no outside - Null space. Think back to how the world looked to you before you were born or after you die, that's as close as you will get.

ALL space and time started in one event - everywhere came into existance at once and continues to expand and cool.

Answer 6

As far as I know, The Big Bang theory is applicable to the Solar system (?), becaseu the universe is still having lot of changes by itself. There are many stars created, solar systems generated, and stars being made in to black holes.
The Sun and the Planets are more definable since our science has found it out almost completely. But the Universe, sorry we have been able to see something like billion light years only. I can send you the photos ( Drawings) of it if you so wish.

Answer 7

well according to 'the big bang' there was no before, which is hard to imagine, time and all other dimensions were created at the big bang. as energy cannot be created nor destroyed all of the universes energy was concentrated into a space less than an atom. i would imagine quite alot of heat energy.

Answer 8

Since the space itself was created with the big bang, we cannot see what preceded this event. We are now observing the expansion of the fabric of space itself. The bang was not an explosion of matter into preexisting space. Rather, the space itself started expanding with matter within. Distant galaxies are receding from us not because of any initial velocity, but because the space separating us is growing.

Answer 9

It is believed that universe bagan with a big bang
But there is not a single big bang
Some believed that universe was a dense blackhole
There is also a concept of parallel universes read it it is interesting

Answer 10

Wouldnt it be nice if we new the creation or the start of the worlds.How exciting it would be and if you think how old the universes are it just shows how short a lifetime is and the amount of time we have to enjoy our planet Earth and all we want to do is fight each other