The Big Bang – Fan Questions | StarTalk

I’m happy to answer straight out what
was going on before the Big Bang
we have no idea that’s the answer the
way we define time as beginning at the
Big Bang so it was not clear what it
would mean to think of time before the
Big Bang we would need some other
understanding of the universe to give us
access to before the Big Bang and then
we can think about modifying the
definition of time to include that but
until that day comes we’re working with
what we got time begins at the Big Bang
space begins at the Big Bang and you
might say well it’s got to be something
before it no that doesn’t have to be if
I tell you to walk north and you go
north and eventually you meet Santa
Claus and then I say keep going north
and you said there I can’t keep going
north I’m as north as I can be it’s not
different from me telling you go far
back in time you go back to the Big Bang
and then I say keep going farther back
no this is where it begins I can’t go
farther back in time than the beginning
any more than you can go farther north
than the North Pole