'nothing' happened before the big bang?

[varsha]

from when i was 10-11 years old, i have been told that there was a big bang and the universe has been expanding because of it. but my curiosity grew and wanted to know what caused it. but i was surprised to know that 'nothing' happened before the big bang. as i know there is a cause for everything. but the big bang dosen't. i 'think' that the interaction of the particles and their antiparticles caused the annihilation which we call 'big bang'.(please correct me if i have not used the right terms or if it dosen't make sence. I'm 14 and am still learning.)
please tell me what you think caused the big bang. your views.

 

[Nereid]

It's certainly an interesting question varsha!

However, there's pretty close to nothing - that I'm aware of - which you (or anyone on Earth) could do, today, with the technology we have (and the physics we've given gold stars to) that could seriously test anyone's ideas of any time 'before' the first Planck second (approx 10^-43 of our ordinary seconds).

As to your idea about particle and anti-particle annihilation, well, the universe almost certainly went through a period when that happened (at least for the kinds of particles and anti-particles we know about), but it was well after the BB.

 

[Chronos]

The big bang certainly is a mystery. Just getting there - much less 'peeking' behind the Planck wall - is enormously difficult, as Nereid noted. You may find this interesting:

A Universe from Nothing
http://www.astrosociety.org/pubs/mercury/31_02/nothing.html

 

[varsha]

it was interesting... I'm sort of getting this feeling... either the universe came from nothing or there is some key to this which is very deep. it's like how a simple question like what made the apple fall?, had such a huge answer...