Image credit: ESO/Vista

What came before the Big Bang ?

Posted on Monday, 8 February, 2010 | 38 comments

Scientists are considering the idea that our universe was created when two other universes collided, producing the Big Bang.

If true it would open the door to the idea that there is more than one universe and that there could in fact be a whole multiverse or even a multiverse of multiverses.

String theorists Neil Turok of Cambridge University and Paul Steinhardt, Albert Einstein Professor in Science and Director of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science at Princeton believe that the cosmos we live in was actually created by the cyclical trillion-year collision of two universes (which they define as three-dimensional branes plus time) that were attracted toward each other by the leaking of gravity out of one of the universes.

View: Full article |

Source: Daily Galaxy

News story suggestion by: thefinalfrontier

Discuss: View comments (38)

<< Previous article
Study suggests "boredom can kill you"

Next article >>
45-foot ancient snake devoured crocodiles

Other news in this category

Are we living in a designer universe ?

Posted 9-1-2010 | 82 comments
Some believe that our universe was designed by a creator but could its creator be a civilization of people ?...

Bizarre elongated crater is a Martian mystery

Posted 8-30-2010 | 12 comments
A peculiar elongated crater on the surface of Mars that doesn't fit with standard models has left astronomers baffled....

Is the sun emitting a mystery particle ?

Posted 8-27-2010 | 17 comments
University researchers have found evidence to suggest that the sun could be emitting an unknown mystery particle....

Vast solar system found 127 light years away

Posted 8-26-2010 | 15 comments
The largest known solar system beyound our own has been discovered around a sun-like star 127 light years away....

Amateur rocket to send humans in to space

Posted 8-24-2010 | 8 comments
The world's first amateur rocket designed to carry humans in to space has been developed in Denmark....

Will the universe expand forever ?

Posted 8-21-2010 | 37 comments
Astronomers observing a huge galaxy cluster believe that the universe will keep on expanding indefinately....

Neptune nears end of first orbit since discovery

Posted 8-21-2010 | 2 comments
The planet Neptune is nearing the end of its first complete orbit since it was discovered in 1846....

Hayabusa 2 will seek the origins of life in space

Posted 8-20-2010 | 0 comments
A successor to Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft could launch as early as 2014 to explore the origins of life....

Robonaut 2 prepares to go in to space

Posted 8-17-2010 | 6 comments
NASA's Robonaut 2 will soon be the first human-like robot to go in to space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery....

Moon 'too dry to have life', say scientists

Posted 8-8-2010 | 24 comments
Scientists believe that despite water being found on the moon it is still too dry to have ever supported life....

A universe inside every black hole ?

Posted 8-3-2010 | 45 comments
A Polish cosmologist has determined that an entire universe could exist within every black hole in the cosmos....

NASA plans future Venus mission

Posted 8-1-2010 | 29 comments
With interest in Venus increasing NASA are considering ways in which to explore the planet in a future mission....

View: More news in this category

Recent comments on this story

#34 Posted by Leonardo on 16 February, 2010, 8:28
Well, there are the various theories in which the universe has no defined origin. That is fairly consistent with there being a space-time before a random point in time between 13-15 billion years ago. When I say "the universe" I do not mean what we can observe - as this (in several the...

#35 Posted by joc on 18 February, 2010, 12:57
In order for there to be 'time' there must be 'matter'. Time is only a measurement of the movement which is constant in matter. Space however has not 'time' because it cannot be measured. So there could not be 'space/time' before matter. And it is 'matter...

#36 Posted by Leonardo on 18 February, 2010, 13:41
With a matter/energy equivalence it is likely that time has always existed so long as there has been space (i.e. infinitely.) Space requires energy, as there are stresses even in 'empty' space. Space, time and matter/energy all cannot exist without each other.

#37 Posted by joc on 19 February, 2010, 3:54
Well....I would argue otherwise. Space doesn't 'require' energy; Space IS Energy. There is Energy, manifesting as Space, and there is Energy manifesting as Matter...beyond the Known Universe there is Energy manifesting as Energy at rest. Just my thoughts.

#38 Posted by Leonardo on 19 February, 2010, 10:46
That's fair enough, joc. But whether Space requires Energy, or Space is Energy is irrelevant because in both frames of reference Space and Energy cannot exist independently of one another. I'm not going to speculate on what, if anything, lies beyond the known (observable) universe.

View: All comments (38) |

Discuss: Add comment

On the forum

Stephen Hawking: God was not needed to create

Dark Matter May Be Building Up Inside the Sun

Quantum entanglement powers 1

Cosmic Eye possible formation

Old star wallows in 'steam bath'

Bizarre elongated crater is a Martian mystery

Lunar Eclipse/Winter Solstice 2010 DEC 21st

Is the Sun Emitting a Mystery Particle?

NASA Donates Historical Photo Collection