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Name: Kathy
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: Around 1999
Question:
What occurred before the big bang??


Replies:
We do not know. There is nothing that we can now see that we have identified as showing us something from before the big bang . The big bang followed a time when matter was so dense that we have no good theory about what it was like so we have no idea about what was happening before a short time after the big bang itself. The one thing we can measure is the background infrared radiation (which was recently seen to be slightly non-uniform) and this radiation only dates back toward the big bang to a time when matter became low enough density for light to escape it. THis was a long time after the big bang itself. There is a good book called the First Three Minutes, by Weinberg that describes some of this. I don't know if it is appropriate for your level and I don't know if it is easily available. Let me know if this answer was helpful or if you want more, (or less).

Sam B


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