• Question: If the big bang created earth, how was the universe before it created?

    Asked by Laiba to Andres, Catherine, Darren, Ellie, Samantha on 9 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Darren Rhodes

      Darren Rhodes answered on 9 Nov 2016:

      Hi Laiba. I am sure Andres may be able to give a much more informed view than I – but as I understand physics so far. The question of what came before the universe or, what ’caused’ the universe is a bit of an invalid question – because, if time did not exist in the singularity (the point before the big bang) – then nothing can come before it. If that makes sense. So how can you have a a cause or something happening before something – if time does not exist, right?

    • Photo: Andres Olivares del Campo

      Andres Olivares del Campo answered on 9 Nov 2016:

      Hi Laiba. Just to clarify, the Big Bang created the universe, which expanded and then created the Earth.

      But, Darren is exactly right, one can speculate about what happened before the Big Bang but that will not be Physics anymore, maybe Philosophy? The point is that, before the Big Bang, there is nothing, and we cannot gain any information about what was there.

      The are some interesting theories, like the cyclic universe one, which says that the universe stars and ends an infinite amount of times, so after a Big Bang, there is a Big “Crunch” where the universe collapses back into one point, and then there is a Big Bang for another universe, followed by another Big Crunch, and so on. But this type of theories cannot really be tested…

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