• Question: what came before the big bang?

    Asked by lara.c to Gemma, Hussain, Robert, Ross on 9 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Robert Lees

      Robert Lees answered on 9 Nov 2015:

      A lot of people have thought long and hard about this, but there’s very little way of proving what existed before the big bang. Maybe it was nothing? It is definitely something that we don’t understand yet!

      I have always liked the idea of the Big Crunch, which says that the universe will collapse back in to an infinitely small point and then expand in another Big Bang. Which makes the universe eternal and needs no beginning!

    • Photo: Hussain Jaffery

      Hussain Jaffery answered on 9 Nov 2015:

      Another great question. You guys always have the hardest ones – so hard that no one knows the answer to this one!

      Scientists have actually thought about this a great deal. There are many different theories, and only one or neither can be right.

      One prevailing theory is that because measurable time itself began with the universe, there was no time before the big bang, so there was no ‘before’.

      Another theory is that there are many bubble like universes and ours is one of many. Some ‘inflate’ or ‘bang’ into existence, while other ‘deflate’ or crunch out. We know that time ticks at different speeds in different universes. It’s possible that our universe cam from another collapsed Anti-matter universe. And after many billions of years mach crunch back into itself, like Robert suggested.

      Others argue there is only one universe, where it will continue to expand forever…

      Only time will tell which theory is more likely to be possible, as we get better at understanding particle physics and the cosmos.

Comments