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rumborak
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...why do people like Stephen Hawking talk about things/events "before" the Big Bang? If time (as part of spacetime) was created with this event, it also marks the point in time that had no "before", doesn't it?
Caveat - only Physicists who know what they're talking about. Common clods like you and me need to be very careful about that.Drakkith said:That's why physicists like to talk about things that happened before the big bang.
rumborak said:why do people like Stephen Hawking talk about things/events "before" the Big Bang?
rumborak said:doesn't that usage imply the assumption that normal physics prevailed during that process, i.e. that spacetime was "intact" enough to give a notion of a "before"?
Jetro said:What would you call the "time" before space-time?
PeterDonis said:There is no such thing.
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing scientific explanation for the origin of the universe. It states that around 13.8 billion years ago, all matter, energy, and space itself was compressed into an infinitely dense and hot point, known as a singularity. This singularity then rapidly expanded and cooled, creating the universe we know today.
According to the Big Bang theory, spacetime was created at the moment of the singularity's expansion. This expansion is known as inflation and it is what caused the rapid expansion of the universe. As space and time are intrinsically linked, the creation of space also meant the creation of time.
No, we cannot directly observe the Big Bang itself. This is because the intense heat and radiation from the early universe has since cooled and expanded, making it impossible for us to see it now. However, we can observe the afterglow of the Big Bang, known as cosmic microwave background radiation, which provides evidence for the theory.
It is currently unknown what, if anything, existed before the Big Bang. The concept of time and space as we know it may not have existed before the singularity's expansion. Some theories suggest that the Big Bang may have been the result of a previous universe collapsing in on itself, but this is still a topic of much debate and research.
No, the Big Bang is not the only theory for the origin of the universe, but it is currently the most widely accepted by the scientific community. Other theories, such as the Steady State theory and the Multiverse theory, have been proposed, but they have not been as well-supported by evidence and observations as the Big Bang theory.