Before the big bang

QuestionEdit

hi, my question is what was there before the big bang, some people say there was a small point in space were all matter exsited, doesnt that mean the universe always exsisted in a small point, however, other people say there was nothing before the big bang and after the big bang the universe was created. If this is true then how can nothingness cause the big bang if nothingness does not exist, in so confused lol plz help thanks.

AnswerEdit

Hi Daniel, Well, I can un-confuse you, a little bit. The honest answer is....we just don't know, in fact, no one really knows. As Mr. Spock said once in an old Startrek TV episode, "Even science cannot know the unknown".

Those...some people say....are just that, theories. So every astronomer and cosmologist have their own ideas, because in reality, we may never be able to find out, because at the instant of the Big Bang, not only all matter and energy were created, so was space and time. So... to speak of...before Big Bang, there was no time, as we know it. With zero time passage, all events forever before, could, or would, happen simultaneously.

Recently we have discovered that nothing is not nothing; all of space contains a slight energy, but it's negative energy...it could even be the 'dark energy' we have been hunting for. So even nothing has....something. Prior to Big Bang, I envison a "primordial void" with nothing, not even space, containing this negative energy. A large random fluctuation at the quantum level (microscopically very very small) occurred, two huge massive particle and it's antiparticle burst onto the scene (we see this happen all the time with our cyclotrons but the particle/anti-particle are very very small)...and immediately annihilate each other (Big Bang), releasing a major part of the negative energy in the form of light and heat...almost, leaving only a few percent of normal matter and normal energy as a residue...from which our Universe formed eventually out of. So what are we expanding into? That same primordial void, perhaps. I say almost, because obviously there had to be a slight excess of normal (not anti-matter) matter...what we're made of, and it constitutes only 4% of the Universe, the other being dark matter (23%) and dark energy (about 73%). And currently, we have no idea what dark matter and dark energy are...these are just terms we use to talk about something that we have no idea what they are, as yet. But we DO know that they have to exist. We've at least proved that; by gravitational effects and other effects...accelerating expansion of the space in the Universe, etc. (Google "age and composition of the Universe")

So that's the way I see it, but it's only a picture of the beginning and prior, in my mind. I could be wrong, of course. But this way, I can sleep at night, and I'm sure you'd get a different answer from every other astronomer. But as I stated above, the honest answer is...no one really knows as yet. Hope this helps, Clear Skies, Tom Whiting Erie, PA

FOLLOW UP: As I believe Einstein once said, God not only throws the dice, sometimes He hides the dice.....(black holes, dark energy, dark matter, negative energy, 6 quarks, string theory, neutrino's... etc). Tom