Before the Big Bang, has matter been around for an infinite amount of years?

Question

Like when everything was in the tiny little ball, was that ball around for an infinite amount of years? And will are universe keep exspanding forever for an infinate amount of years? Has the exsistance of anything been around for infinity? Please no religious answers.

Answer 1

No, Not yet.

Answer 2

One idea that is a bit compelling has the Universe start from an unusually high concentration of particles appearing at the same time from the quantum foam in the otherwise vacuum.  Not very much total mass appeared, but as it appeared, it's gravity caused space to stretch, which had the effect that much more mass was created, in a snowballing fashion.  The result was our Universe. The "ball" wasn't around for very long at all.  And the "ball" appeared over a very, very large area, and all at once.  It had to be at least as large as the current Visible Universe.

But since time and space were created at the same time, there was no "before" the Big Bang.  Time and space appear to be related more intimately than just by math.

It appears that our Universe will keep expanding.  After 10^100 years or so, the black holes evaporate, and all that's left is a very few stray and very red shifted (and cold) photons.  Perhaps at that point, the Universe is ripe for a new Big Bang.

Neither this beginning story, nor the end story has been proven. And, neither story are the only ideas being kicked around.

Interestingly, we may get evidence either for a previous Universe or that no such previous Universe existed.  The follow on to WMAP is the Plank satellite.  It may have the sensitivity to detect a previous Universe's signature on our own.

Answer 3

The whole question of what things were like in the first few seconds (actually in the first few millionths of a second) after the 'Big Bang' is one to which nobody has any real good, solid answers.  As for what was there before, it's purely speculation wrapped up in conjecture and tied with a bow made of guesses.

The Big Bang is, however, the only theory we have (so far) which fits all of the observable data about the Universe.

HTH,

Doug

Answer 4

The Big Bang as Fred Hoyle derisively named it, is what is called a "singularity".  My take on it is that if you look anywhere in the universe it appears that we are in the midst of an ongoing explosion.  The doppler shift in the spectra of stars gives a readout of whether they are moving toward us or away, and most of the universe seems to be moving away.

In other words the universe must have started with a massive explosion about 20 billion years ago and incredibly is still going on.  It took a while before atoms formed because at the outset there were only fundamental particles, so I gather, since matter in the universe would have been packed too tightly for even atoms to have formed.  

The imponderable or unimaginable supposition is that there is nothing beyond the limits of the universe and no time before the big bang.  Time and space and matter kind of sprang into existence at that moment.   Sounds kind of like a modern creation myth to me.  

We can actually see back in time, the deeper into space we look so to speak as there is still light that is just reaching us now that must have been traveling almost 20 billion years generated from the big bang itself.   This is what Penzias and Wilson figured out.

Some of this is connected with Einstein's theories and discoveries, such as the idea that space can be curved and that at the speed of light mass approaches infinity and time slows down immeasurably.  I have no idea what Einstein was smoking when he came up with these ideas and I guess I can only take it all on faith.  I am sure someone has worked it out mathematically because if you read some of what these astrophysicists and cosmologists talk about (Guth, Hawking, Ferris) they sound as if they are pretty sure about the details.

Personally I think there may be other universes out there and other big bangs, but how we mere humans could ever figure that out is beyond me.

Answer 5

nothing as been around for an infinate amount of years, well except nothingness, nothingness has always been and will be.  and will our universe last forever? no. there are 2 theorys of how its going to end.

1: the universe is gonna expand so much that everything will just tear apart and even us as a human race and our planet will be stretched, and stretched until everything rips and we all are dead.

2:i know much more about this theory. The universe will keep expanding and expanding until it finaly stops. then instead of going forward, it will start to go backwards. it will start to shrink into what it use to be, crushing everything into nothingness, this could create another big bang and restart the universe.

The second theory makes you woner, is that how our big bang started without leaving any evidence of anything before it?

Answer 6

well according to scientists the big bang created spacetime. so prior to the big bang our universe did not exist. so there literally was no before the big bang. there may have been other universes, but their time does not apply to ours.

Answer 7

Omg relax with the god thing, nobody knows YET what was before the Big Bang, maybe matter was different,  I seem to be stuck on explaining what was before the big bang also. But what we do know it that it has been expanding since and shows no sign of slowing. And that "tiny little ball" could be a trillions of trillions of miles wide, since there was nothing else size wouldnt matter.

Answer 8

I appreciate your curiosity, but this kind of question is asked here on an hourly basis.

Go to google.com and ask:

what was there before the big bang?

Answer 9

no scientific evidence, only god in his holy book knows the answer, therefore , in this case on must accept (no matter what ur religion is) what is written in holy books regarding this matter, because god is the one who created this whole thing after all, and so he knows all about it.