What Came Before The Big Bang? A Time Before Time

Astronomers are pretty sure what happened after the Big Bang, but what came before? What are the leading theories for the causes of the Big Bang?

Follow us on Twitter: @universetoday

Team:
Fraser Cain - @fcain
Jason Harmer - @jasoncharmer
Susie Murph - @susiemmurph
Brian Koberlein - @briankoberlein
Kevin Gill - @kevinmgill

Created by:
Fraser Cain and Jason Harmer

Edited by:
Chad Weber

Music:
Left Spine Down - “X-Ray”

About 13.8 billion years ago the Universe started with a bang, kicked the doors in, brought fancy cheeses and a bag of ice, spiked the punch bowl and invited the new neighbors over for all-nighter to encompass all all-nighters from that point forward.
But what happened before that?

What was going on before the Big Bang? Usually, we tell the story of the Universe by starting at the Big Bang and then talking about what happened after. Similarly and completely opposite to how astronomers view the Universe... by standing in the present and looking backwards. From here, the furthest we can look back is to the cosmic microwave background, which is about 380,000 years after the big bang.

Before that we couldn't hope to see a thing, the Universe was just too hot and dense to be transparent. Like pea soup. Soup made of delicious face burning high energy everything.
In traditional stupid earth-bound no-Tardis life unsatisfactory fashion, we can’t actually observe the origin of the Universe from our place in time and space.

Damn you… place in time and space.

Fortunately, the thinky types have come up with some ideas, and they’re all one part crazy, one part mind bendy, and 100% bananas.
The first idea is that it all began as a kind of quantum fluctuation that inflated to our present universe.

Something very, very subtle expanding over time resulting in, as an accidental byproduct, our existence.
The alternate idea is that our universe began within a black hole of an older universe.
I’m gonna let you think about that one. Just let your brain simmer there.

There was universe “here”, that isn't our universe, then that universe became a black hole… and from that black hole formed us and EVERYTHING around us. Literally, everything around us. In every direction we look, and even the stuff we just assume to be out there.

Here’s another one. We see particles popping into existence here in our Universe. What if, after an immense amount of time, a whole Universe’s worth of particles all popped into existence at the same time. Seriously… an immense amount of time, with lots and lots of “almost” universes that didn't make the cut.

More recently, the BICEP2 team observed what may be evidence of inflation in the early Universe.
Like any claim of this gravity, the result is hotly debated. If the idea of inflation is correct, it is possible that our universe is part of a much larger multiverse.
And the most popular form would produce a kind of eternal inflation, where universes are springing up all the time. Ours would just happen to be one of them.

It is also possible that asking what came before the big bang is much like asking what is north of the North Pole. What looks like a beginning in need of a cause may just be due to our own perspective.
We like to think of effects always having a cause, but the Universe might be an exception. The Universe might simply be. Because.

You tell us. What was going on before the party started? Let us know in the comments below.

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[timwitt]

Fraser,
I am truly terrified. I have never been so scared in my life. Just in this past week I feel I have lost my mind and my personality thinking about the Universe and time. I feel as if I should not exist today, according to logic. What happened before time, the big bang, the universe, and what happened before that!? and before that!? and so on, and so on, and so on.. I mean am I completely losing it?? Am I alone with these thoughts? Someone please respond, or at least help me along with these thoughts so I may continue living a normal life. I am truly scared in this moment of my life.

[dekippiesip]

 The paradox is basically:

 Either something has existed infinitely long OR something came into being out of nothing. Both are counterintuitive, yet 1 of those statements must be true. If something has existed infinitely long, that's unsatisfactory since we would have something that has been there forever without needing an explanation of it's origin in it's own right. If something came out of nothing, well obviously that's problematic since nothing can't turn into something according to the conservation of matter/energy.

 In other words, either causality is false or the law of conservation matter/energy is false.

[HikikomoriDev]

...what if it's beyond our comprehension and we would need to gain more consciousness to understand it?

[giuffre]

You know what would be funny? If our universe was part of a tiny molecule that made up an insignificantly small part of the space between the face and the glass in someone's clock. So that long before we popped into existence they would look through where we were about to be in order to see what time it was.

[tobsenklopsen]

Maybe the Universe is like a Video played in for example in VLC Player with loop-function enabled. The Video starts with the big bang, then we see "the video" and then everything collapses and causes another Big Bang and everything starts again.

I know I'm talking Bullsh*t but its 3am, I'm tired as f*ck, and I get like Philosophical and sh*t when its late. So I weirdly went from watching a video of Markiplier to Area 51 to "Element 115" to Underground Nuclear Explosions, Molecular Transmissions/Teleportation to "What was before the Big Bang "

Whoever reads this to the very end...I'm proud of you because I woudn't 0_O
Sry for any misspellings. I'm german xD

[SkyKing]

im looking for an answer deeper than this. what came before the big bang, and the big bang before, and the one before that, until the first big bang. what came before it ? why did big bang started ? from what ?

[JustAlex]

What if the big bang was a black hole that finally popped. Throwing everything that it contained in all directions. haha

[b]

Think about this for a you're in your room, in your house, in your state, in your country, in the world, in the solar system, in the Milky Way, in the universe, in WHAT? There can't be and end to existence. There has to be more out there, which means it must LITERALLY go on forever... but how is it possible for something to go on forever?

[petersengupta]

why dont your videos have more views!? i love them! keep em comin :)

[SPL-]

You can never solve the puzzle by bringing God in the picture, because even if there is a god, then what came before that god?   

I think the more interesting question is why is there something, rather than nothing and what is nothing anyway!

[skyviewtrading]

Again, awesome video! I see a lot of comments of people saying you're wrong in some of your comments... I'll admit I'm not a scientist and these topics are simply a fascination to me.

Well, I don't know if you're right or wrong but I certainly prefer listening to your well-thought-out videos rather than hearing some genius ramble on all of his thoughts (I would enjoy that as well but simply don't have the time).

While none of us really know the full truth about the universe, I am really enjoying your videos as they inform me about popular theories so I can think for myself on a deeper level (rather than simply hearing YOUR view). Great work and thank you for sharing.

[doubleghod]

It was really funny at chronomark 1:14 when the narrator clenched his fist and in faux rage said, "Damn you, place and time and space." hahahahaahah

[violentdelightsjames]

No matter what it will always be an infinite regress problem if we did find out what, if anything came before/caused the Big Bang. I just conclude like what Carl Sagan said before, "In many cultures, a customary answer is that a "God" or "Gods" created the universe out of nothing, but if we wish to pursue this question courageously we must, of course, ask the next question - where did God come from? If we decide that this is an unanswerable question, why not save a step and conclude that the origin of the universe is an unanswerable question? Or if we say that God always existed, why not save a step and conclude that the universe always existed? There's no need for a creation, it was always here." It's turtles all the way down.

[katieking]

Its difficult to speculate what occurred prior to existence existing. I've often wondered what events may have taken place in order for the universe to be what we think it is today. I feel as though the difficult question that we are trying to answer may be beyond our comprehension at least for the time being. In order to understand the origins of the universe we have to accept the fact that perhaps our way of determining said origins may be folly. Perhaps we may also have to accept the idea that physics and mathematics as we know them today may not be the ultimate tool to answer these questions. This obviously opens the door for many other theories such as string theory at cetera. However, to know what existed before existence itself is more of a philosophical question then a literal scientific one. At least for now we can't answer these questions with any certainty, but that's okay. The idea that we continuously strive to answer the unanswerable questions bodes well for us as a people and as a species. Thank you for posting this video.

[kauihana]

lol at your one sleeve you was sweating

[shockslice]

Your great scripting always brings out a smile. Just listen to that first 15s again, gotta love it.

[Blackboilingrobotoil]

The black hole birth hypothesis is interesting to me because it was the same explanation I though up as a kid. "If our universe was birthed from a singularity but we don't where it came from, and black holes suck up everything into a singularity but we don't know where it goes, then maybe to the two phenomenon are related???" ...just a thought from a 12 year old 20 years ago haha.

[ManchesterUnitedKing]

It's mind bending to imagine that there was another universe before our own. SO MUCH TIME between the present day and a day in the old universe. Great video, love learning about space even though I never mastered A-level Physics. Subscribed!

[michaelcross]

This is quite the topic to wrap your mind around. I don't fully understand because I'm thinking in the wrong way about this. Interesting topic, though. You've got a subscriber out of me. Thank you for posting the video!

[DJSbros]

What bothers me is that sure we can accept that our universe came from other universes, but what started the rest? How can existence