• Question: What was there before the universe? Before the Big Bang?

    Asked by bluesapphire93 to Ben, James, Jen, Michael, Susanna on 15 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Jen Todd Jones

      Jen Todd Jones answered on 15 Mar 2013:

      This is a question probably best reserved for the space zone physicists! But in my reading I learned that the before the big bang our best theory is that the entire universe existed in a tiny subatomic (that’s smaller than an atom) particle, called a singularity. This then exploded in a flurry of activity and expanded rapidly outwards creating the universe. Although there is some confusion about whether this can really be the case, since the mass of the universe or of earth, for example, is what creates time for us, so how can time have existed before the universe existed? That makes the question of what existed just before the big band, which is really a question including a unit of time, even more confusing!

      Jen

    • Photo: Ben Brilot

      Ben Brilot answered on 15 Mar 2013:

      I’m afraid that I don’t really know, but then I don’t think anyone actually knows the answer to this. The problem is that the big bang theory seems to hold together and we can mathematically model and predict what the universe looks like right after the big bang. But as you go back in time closer and closer to the start of the big bang, when all matter is packed together in a singularity (like Jen says), the maths starts to break down because the universe is becoming almost infinitely dense. That’s the best I understand, but there are undoubtedly physicists out there who can answer your question much better.

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