what was there before the Big Bang?

Question: what was there before the Big Bang?
- Keywords:
  big bang,
  philosophy,
  universe
Asked by carrac to Daniela, Hannah, Ian, Jono, Mark on 25 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by chloefernee.
- Mark Hodson answered on 25 Jun 2013:
  
  Hi carrac,
  
  a very good question. humankind has been looking for that answer through science and religion for ever. It is quite possible that there was another universe just like ours formed from its own big bang. The collapse of that universe caused the big bang that created ours. But that doesn’t really answer the question because what existed before the previous universe. I suspect that we’ll never know.
  
  cheers
  
  m
- Daniela Plana answered on 25 Jun 2013:
  
  Hi carrac!
  
  Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone really know what was there before the Big Bang… that’s a topic that’s highly debated and delves into so many different things besides science, like philosophy or religion.
  
  More and more scientists get closer to knowing what/how the Big Bang actually happened, but the closer you get to it, the more difficult it is for us to build machines that can actually accurately tell us things!
  
  What do you think was there???
  Daniela
- Hannah Brotherton answered on 25 Jun 2013:
  
  Hi carrac,
  This question is the BIG question……its asking really what the origin of everything is….because the big bang created everything – the universe, earth and living things.
  
  There’s no answer 🙁 humans aren’t that smart enough to find this out.
  
  But I love thinking, so lets have a think…..
  For the universe to exist, it must be in something right? Like a box? because for something to be floating around it needs to float inside something. (it can’t be floating in nothing)
  But what is the universe floating around in? How big is the universe….if it is expanding, what is it expanding into???? If we could find this out, then we could investigate what this thing is and what is contains.
  
  If we can understand what this is, then when we create the equipment we could travel to this thing and take samples….we could see what chemicals and what molecules exist in it and this will tell us what was there before the Big Bang.
  It was also explain how the universe was created and even why it was?
  
  But humans only use about 40% of their brains, so I think when we use 100% we will be smart enough to make the equipment and travel through space and time to this thing that the universe is in, to understand it more, and hopefully answer your question 😀
- Ian Wilson answered on 25 Jun 2013:
  
  Hi carrac,
  
  Ah now that’s the big question in life! Where did we all come from?
  
  Unfortunately, nobody knows this one. That said, there are a few theories. The one I like says that the universe is on some kind of repeat loop. Our universe as we know it is expanding as a result of the Big Bang. All the matter in the universe was thrown out from the explosion with such force that it’s still spreading out 13.77 billion years later!
  
  But at some point, things will slow down and everything will be still. Then, slowly, everything will start being sucked back into the centre of the universe, where the Big Bang happened. Maybe there’s a supermassive Black Hole there, who knows? But some scientists believe that, eventually, everything in the universe will collapse into this single point again….and then explode outwards in a new Big Bang.
  
  And some people believe that that’s what came before our Big Bang – another universe made of the same matter but in a completely different arrangement – new planets, new stars etc. What we don’t know (and might never know) is what came before the first Big Bang – it’s one of life’s great mysteries!
  
  Cheers,
  
  Ian

Question: what was there before the Big Bang?

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