how could the big bang happen?

[sci-man]

Hi, I'm just wondering how the big bang could have happened if there was nothing before it in the first place? what I'm told happened was this below that is bold and underlined.

The current leading theory states that the universe expanded incredibly rapidly in a very very short space of time, due to a process called cosmic inflation. This theory made some predictions which have since been borne out, eg by some features of the cosmic background radiation, and so it’s a strong, widely accepted theory. That begs the question “Well, what inflated?”, and that is a good question. We’re not quite sure. But, it seems that there was something there before, that dumped a great deal of energy (for some reason), and that triggered a short runaway expansion of a small part of space into the much much larger part of space which made up the very early universe. Then, the inflation chain reaction stopped, and the universe continued to expand just due to the fact that it was incredibly hot and dense, and that’s what hot and dense things do if they’re not contained.

so how could this have happened then if everything came from nothing then it doesn't make sense now does it? So there had to be something but as I stated earlier how could something exist before anything was created??? 

[Strange]

The Big Bang model doesn’t say anything about how the universe started. None of our current theories go back that far. 

There are many possibilities: eternal inflation, a cyclic universe (“big bounce”), an infinitely old universe, etc. There is no real evidence for any of these at the moment. 

P.S. is your underlined text copied from somewhere? If so you should provide a reference/link 

[beecee]

23 minutes ago, sci-man said:

Hi, I'm just wondering how the big bang could have happened if there was nothing before it in the first place? what I'm told happened was this below that is bold and underlined.

The current leading theory states that the universe expanded incredibly rapidly in a very very short space of time, due to a process called cosmic inflation. This theory made some predictions which have since been borne out, eg by some features of the cosmic background radiation, and so it’s a strong, widely accepted theory. That begs the question “Well, what inflated?”, and that is a good question. We’re not quite sure. But, it seems that there was something there before, that dumped a great deal of energy (for some reason), and that triggered a short runaway expansion of a small part of space into the much much larger part of space which made up the very early universe. Then, the inflation chain reaction stopped, and the universe continued to expand just due to the fact that it was incredibly hot and dense, and that’s what hot and dense things do if they’re not contained.

so how could this have happened then if everything came from nothing then it doesn't make sense now does it? So there had to be something but as I stated earlier how could something exist before anything was created??? 

Perhaps the quantum foam from which the BB arose due to some fluctuation is our best description of nothing.

https://www.astrosociety.org/publication/a-universe-from-nothing/

[sci-man]

ok but how could something exsist before anything was made due to TBB

[beecee]

7 minutes ago, sci-man said:

ok but how could something exsist before anything was made due to TBB

Like I said, perhaps our definition of nothing needs reappraised. Perhaps the quantum foam is the best nothingness that can ever be and has existed for eternity.  Otherwise all we can say is, as yet we don't know.

7 minutes ago, sci-man said:

ok but how could something exsist before anything was made due to TBB

https://www.astrosociety.org/publication/a-universe-from-nothing/

"What produced the energy before inflation? This is perhaps the ultimate question. As crazy as it might seem, the energy may have come out of nothing! The meaning of “nothing” is somewhat ambiguous here. It might be the vacuum in some pre-existing space and time, or it could be nothing at all – that is, all concepts of space and time were created with the universe itself".

"Quantum theory, and specifically Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, provide a natural explanation for how that energy may have come out of nothing. Throughout the universe, particles and antiparticles spontaneously form and quickly annihilate each other without violating the law of energy conservation. These spontaneous births and deaths of so-called “virtual particle” pairs are known as “quantum fluctuations.” Indeed, laboratory experiments have proven that quantum fluctuations occur everywhere, all the time. Virtual particle pairs (such as electrons and positrons) directly affect the energy levels of atoms, and the predicted energy levels disagree with the experimentally measured levels unless quantum fluctuations are taken into account."

Edited August 31, 2018 by beecee

[Strange]

9 minutes ago, sci-man said:

ok but how could something exsist before anything was made due to TBB

We don’t currently have a theory that says everything was made by the Big Bang. Maybe the “something” always existed. 

[beecee]

Eternal Inflation although still speculative does have plenty going for it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_inflation

from the link......

Guth declared:

It's hard to build models of inflation that don't lead to a multiverse. It's not impossible, so I think there's still certainly research that needs to be done. But most models of inflation do lead to a multiverse, and evidence for inflation will be pushing us in the direction of taking the idea of a multiverse seriously.[21]

According to Linde, "It's possible to invent models of inflation that do not allow a multiverse, but it's difficult. Every experiment that brings better credence to inflationary theory brings us much closer to hints that the multiverse is real

[Phi for All]

17 hours ago, sci-man said:

ok but how could something exsist before anything was made due to TBB

Strange gave you three possible answers to this in the first response, so it's obvious you didn't look them up. "Big Bounce" is my favorite, seeing as how we can't really know now, or possibly ever. That makes pre-BB theories unfalsifiable, doesn't it?

[Airbrush]

17 hours ago, sci-man said:

ok but how could something exsist before anything was made due to TBB

We simply don't know what existed before the big bang.  Could it have been some sort of "potential energy" existed before the big bang?  Then something happened, a quantum fluctuation, that caused kinetic energy of the big bang.  Could there have been a pre-existing universe that got annihilated by the big bang?  Could another big bang happen in our universe that would complete destroy our current universe?  If "nothing" existed before the big bang, then that "nothing" was obviously not absolutely nothing.

[sci-man]

ok so the big bang could have been a random thing that happened and could destroy our universe if it happens again cool.

[DrP]

6 minutes ago, sci-man said:

ok so the big bang could have been a random thing that happened and could destroy our universe if it happens again cool.

Not my field - but just because it caused the massive expansion before (whatever it was that happened to cause it) it doesn't mean it will do the same again - If the universe was in a  'hot dense state' or whatever was there - it has now expanded greatly....  should we expect whatever triggered it to destroy what we have now?   A spark starts a fire...   a spark wont put a fire out.  No one knows what happened to cause it and cannot possibly know with our current knowledge - no -one knows if it could happen again or what the consequences would be if 'it' did happen again.

[Strange]

2 hours ago, sci-man said:

ok so the big bang could have been a random thing that happened and could destroy our universe if it happens again cool.

The conditions in the early universe no longer exist. One possibility is that was caused by the collapse of an earlier universe (“big bounce”). That would certainly destroy our universe if it happened. Although accelerating expansion makes this unlikely. 

Another hypothesis is the collapse of a false vacuum state. If that were the case the false vacuum is gone so that can’t happen again. 

In eternal inflation models, where universes are constantly created, they are causally disconnected from us and so cannot affect our universe. 

[sci-man]

oh.

[Airbrush]

On ‎10‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 7:59 AM, Strange said:

The conditions in the early universe no longer exist. One possibility is that was caused by the collapse of an earlier universe (“big bounce”). That would certainly destroy our universe if it happened. Although accelerating expansion makes this unlikely. 

Another hypothesis is the collapse of a false vacuum state. If that were the case the false vacuum is gone so that can’t happen again. 

In eternal inflation models, where universes are constantly created, they are causally disconnected from us and so cannot affect our universe. 

Can we know that another big bang cannot happen at any moment, anywhere?

If before the big bang was an infinite vacuum, when the big bang started could this "perfect vacuum" suck the big bang to infinity instantaneously?

[Strange]

3 hours ago, Airbrush said:

Can we know that another big bang cannot happen at any moment, anywhere?

No, we can’t. It is possible that we are still in an unstable false vacuum, for example. 

The astrophysicist Katie Mack has written and talked about various ways the universe could end  - if your want  to look for more info