The Big Bang

We all know it happened. We all know something about it.

One thing i have always wondered about it is:

Was the vacuum of space there before it? .............i.e............ did it happen in the vacuum of space, or did it actually create the vacuum of space and everything else?

Paul,

Hard as it is to imaging, but space itself is a property of the universe, therefore it didn't exist for the universe to expand into. Neither did time. That's why any question that begins with 'Before the big bang' is irrelevent, since time didn't exist before the universe.

So what did the universe exand into? Nothing not even space. Tricky one to get yer head around eh?

but space itself is a property of the universe, therefore it didn't exist for the universe to expand into.

So you are saying that indeed the big bang created space. As best we know.

You could seriously go ga-ga pondering such things. Its all just too much for our tiny minds to understand or even begin to comprehend.

Thanks Dave. I've always wondered.

So before there was ANYTHING.....................there was NOTHING............not even the vacuum of space.

That will give me many sleepless nights thinking about it.

So if NOTHING existed before the bang.....not even space.........what the hell was there to make it happen?. Something cant happen out of NOTHING.

When you think about it, it's easier to believe in a God who created everything. No questions asked......................it is what it is............and that's that.

So if NOTHING existed before the bang.....not even space.........what the hell was there to make it happen?. Something cant happen out of NOTHING.

Well we don't know but there are several theories.

One is that the "universe" oscillates. So the big ban was somehow created by a big crunch from the last one.

Another is to do with string theory which has to do with our universes brane merging with another brane which caused a release of energy that triggered the big bang. I guess that means that string theory takes the big ban as an event in our regular 4 dimensional space but that the other dimensions already existed? Try as I might I've never been able to figure out much of string theory.

If you want to give your brain some exercise pick up a copy of the Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. That the best book I've seen on string theory. Also made into a short series of documentaries, the first is at tinyurl.com/3d3w2e

Paul,

Hard as it is to imaging, but space itself is a property of the universe, therefore it didn't exist for the universe to expand into. Neither did time. That's why any question that begins with 'Before the big bang' is irrelevent, since time didn't exist before the universe.

So what did the universe exand into? Nothing not even space. Tricky one to get yer head around eh?

Drat... and I'd just settled on a title for my doctoral thesis: "The Universe, and Everything Outside it."

I guess my PhD's going to have to wait a little longer... mutter, mutter, mutter...

Paul,

Hard as it is to imaging, but space itself is a property of the universe, therefore it didn't exist for the universe to expand into. Neither did time. That's why any question that begins with 'Before the big bang' is irrelevent, since time didn't exist before the universe.

So what did the universe exand into? Nothing not even space. Tricky one to get yer head around eh?

Drat... and I'd just settled on a title for my doctoral thesis: "The Universe, and Everything Outside it."

I guess my PhD's going to have to wait a little longer... mutter, mutter, mutter...

Just make another dimension for your ideas. That seems all the rage