What came before the Big Bang?
The strictly correct answer is: nobody knows, and nobody even knows if the question makes sense. According to general relativity, Einstein’s theory of gravity and our best understanding of what governs the early universe, there is no such thing as “before the Big Bang” — it is the point at which space and time come into existence. However, it is also a “singular” point, at which our theories break down. It is possible that some future reconciliation of general relativity with quantum mechanics will help us understand the origin of the Big Bang, just as it is possible that we may come to believe that the universe had an interesting history even before what we now call the Bang. Both possibilities are being actively pursued by cosmologists.
The standard Big Bang model is singular at the time of the Big Bang, t = 0. This means that one cannot even define time, since spacetime is singular. In some models like the chaotic or perpetual inflation favored by Linde, the Big Bang is just one of many inflating bubbles in a spacetime foam. But there is no possibility of getting information from outside our own one bubble. Thus I conclude that: “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” From Bruce Margon and Craig Hogan at the Univ. of Washington Back to top. Why is the sky dark at night? If the Universe were infinitely old, and infinite in extent, and stars could shine forever, then every direction you looked would eventually end on the surface of a star, and the whole sky would be as bright as the surface of the Sun. This is known as Olbers’ Paradox after Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers [1757-1840] who wrote about it in 1823-1826 but it was also discussed earlier. Absorption by interstellar dust does not circumvent this parad
