What Existed Before the Big Bang？

The Big Bang theory that we studied in school, does it really tell us the beginning of the universe? After completing my physics degree, when I studied it, I came to know that most of the modern scientists don't consider it to be the literal beginning of the universe. Which means, what we study in school is just a simplified version and there are some misconceptions in it. Humans have been looking at the stars for centuries. He kept trying to understand the depth of the sky and kept looking for the meaning of his existence. The Greeks said that the universe is infinite. In Hindu philosophy and Buddhism, it is about the cycles of creation and destruction of the universe. This shows that people have always thought that the universe was never static. In 1687, Isaac Newton published Principia and showed that the laws that apply to the earth also apply to the entire universe. Newton's gravity theory brought a huge change in science. But there was a problem. According to Newton's universal gravity law, if every object attracts each other, then why didn't the universe collapse? Newton took a solution from Greek philosophers. He said that the universe is infinite and it has no center. That's why the matter won't collapse. Unseen stars and planets keep the balance of the entire system. This is called the static universe, which is infinite in space and time. Then people observed the night sky. If the universe is infinite and eternal, then the night sky should be theoretically as bright as the sun. But in reality, the sky is dark and only a few stars are visible. This contradiction shows that the universe is not infinite and static. This question pushes modern physics forward. Did the universe start with the Big Bang? Or was there something else before that? Was there a singularity, i.e. a point in which there is infinite density? Did it explode? Or was there some other mechanism? After 200 years of Newton, science tried to understand it. And this journey took us to Einstein. Einstein showed that space and time are intrinsically connected. To understand the universe, you have to look at motion, gravity and space-time, i.e. time, place and fabric together. This was the beginning of modern cosmology, i.e. cosmology. And think, if what we were taught in school was only half-truth, then what was the history of the universe? Will we understand what our ancestors understood? Or will we discover something new? In 1905, a 26-year-old scientist changed the understanding of the world. His name was Albert Einstein. At that time, people thought that time and space are different things. But Einstein said, no, these are both parts of the same fabric, which we call space-time. Space-time means an invisible fabric of time and space in which the whole universe is settled. Einstein said that gravity is not as powerful as Newton said. According to Newton, gravity is a force that pulls two things. But Einstein said, no, gravity is not a pulling force, but a slope of space-time. Think, like if you put a heavy ball on a trampoline, the trampoline bends down. Now if you put a small ball on it, it will go towards the big ball. Einstein said the same thing. Heavy objects like the sun curve space-time and planets rotate on the same slope. This theory is called General Theory of Relativity. It explains how gravity, space and time are interconnected. And this theory later became the root of the biggest discoveries of the universe. Einstein's equations said that the universe cannot remain static. It will either expand or contract. But Einstein found this strange at that time. Because people believed that the universe has always been the same. So he added a small adjustment to his equation, the cosmological constant, so that the universe seems stable. Later he himself said, this was my biggest mistake. But this mistake proved to be true later. When Hubble said in 1929 that galaxies are moving away from each other, it means that the universe is expanding. Just like Einstein's equations said. Einstein's relativity theory changed our understanding of the universe forever. Now space is not an empty space, but a fabric taking shape from energy and matter. Time is also not stable, it also bends due to gravity and motion. And if space and time can change themselves, then can the universe have a beginning? Is that beginning what we call Big Bang today? Maybe. But Einstein's story does not end here. He opened the doors of such a world where space and time collided with each other and this is where the next chapter of our cosmic journey began. After Einstein's relativity theory, scientists started looking at the universe from a new perspective. But even then, most people believed that the universe is stable, neither expands nor contracts. Then came a man who changed the whole story, Edwin Hubble. In the 1920s, Hubble observed distant galaxies from the telescope of Mount Wilson Observatory. He found that almost every galaxy is moving away from us, and the farther the galaxy is, the faster it is moving away. This observation is called Red Shift. When something goes away, its light becomes longer, that is, it shifts towards red, just like the sound of a siren becomes deeper and deeper as it goes away. Hubble came up with a big conclusion, the universe is expanding, that is, space itself is expanding, and galaxies are floating in that expanding fabric. Think, like you make a point on a balloon and then inflate the balloon, as the balloon expands, every point will go away from the rest of the points, but no point will be centered. The universe is also something like this, seen from everywhere, so it seems that everything else is going away. This discovery changes everything. Now the universe is not static, but it is dynamic, constantly changing, evolving, and if the universe is expanding today, then it means that it must have been very small sometime. If we take time back, then everything converges on a point, and that's where the Big Bang happened. Einstein's equations had already hinted at this, but now we have observational proof. The expansion of the universe was not just a theory, it was a reality. This was the day when humans first understood that we are in a moving cosmos. Galaxies are not just dots, but cosmic travelers who have been traveling in space for billions of years. Hubble's telescope showed us a glimpse of our past, and perhaps of the future too. Because if the universe is expanding, then one day it can expand so much that galaxies cannot be seen from each other. And this is where the next big story begins, the birth of the Big Bang. The moment when the whole universe exploded from a dot and turned into today's billions of galaxies. Scientists had understood that the universe is not static, it is expanding. But one question was left. If the universe is expanding today, then where did it start? This question takes us to the 1940s, to a Belgian priest and scientist, George Lemaitre. Lemaitre gave a bold idea that the universe began with a primal atom, that is, a very small, dense dot. He said, all galaxies, matter and energy were once at one place and then spread in a huge explosion. This concept was later known as the Big Bang theory. At first, many scientists thought it was a joke. A British astronomer, Fred Hoyle sarcastically called it the Big Bang, but the same name became famous forever. Lemaitre's idea started a new thought. If the universe is expanding, then it must have been very dense and hot. And if we think of that expansion backwards, then we will reach that moment when the universe was almost zero in size, but the energy was infinite. We call that moment the beginning of time, the moment when space, time, matter and energy were all born. Imagine, the whole universe was smaller than an atom. The temperature was so high that even atoms could not exist. It was just pure energy that slowly started changing into matter. And when the Big Bang happened, the universe began to expand in fractions of seconds. Energy changed into photons, photons into matter and slowly the first particles were formed. That is, the Big Bang was not an ordinary explosion. It was an explosion of space itself. Space itself began to expand. Many evidences supporting this theory were found. The biggest was the cosmic microwave background radiation, a faint glow that is still present in the universe. This glow is the echo of that first explosion, an echo that has been echoing in space for billions of years. Big Bang taught us that we are all fragments of stars, planets, humans, the same explosion. We are literally made of stardust. And this was the moment when science tried to understand creation for the first time, when everything was made of nothing. After a few lakh years of the Big Bang, the universe was still extremely hot and bright. Light and energy were spread everywhere in space. But slowly, as the universe expanded, the temperature began to decrease. Atoms began to form, light began to separate from matter and for the first time the universe became transparent. This was the moment when the universe left its first voice, a cosmic echo, which is still echoing in space. This is called cosmic microwave background radiation or CMB in short. CMB is that ancient glow that we see in every direction. A very faint light that was formed about 3,80,000 years after the Big Bang is proof that the Big Bang really happened. Scientists discovered it with the help of two researchers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson in 1965. They were trying to catch signals from a radio antenna, but again and again, a strange noise was heard. They thought there would be dust in the antenna, they cleaned it, but the sound still kept coming. Finally, they realized that this noise was coming from the whole universe. It was the afterglow of the Big Bang. Think about it, the voice that was born 13.8 billion years ago is still echoing around us, only it has become very faint. If we can see that radiation, then we will get a baby picture of the universe, that picture when galaxies, stars and planets were yet to be formed. Scientists mapped that glow with satellites like COBE, WMAP and Planck. And the pattern shown proved that the universe really started like a fireball. This cosmic echo is not just science, it is a reminder that everything, every atom, every breath that we take is connected to the same ancient explosion. We are all children of that first sound. And when you look at the sky at night, remember that that darkness is also the echo of that first light. Every star, every galaxy is dancing on the same ancient rhythm that started billions of years ago. The universe is still speaking, we just need to hear it. After hearing the echo of the Big Bang, a new question arose in humans. Where are we in this vast universe? This question seems simple, but it took centuries to answer it. From the first telescopes to modern space observatories, our curiosity always led us forward. Every new technology showed us a little bit more of the universe, as if an ancient map was slowly unfolding. When Edwin Hubble saw galaxies, we realized that our Milky Way is not alone. Then radio telescopes caught those signals that we could never see with our eyes. Infrared telescopes showed us the heat coming out of distant stars. Every observation opened a new layer of the universe. Scientists started cosmic surveys like Sloan Digital Sky Survey, in which the positions of millions of galaxies were recorded. When these galaxies were put into a computer model, a surprising pattern emerged. The universe was not random. The galaxies were in clusters. Clusters were made up of filaments, i.e. cosmic threads. This whole structure looked like a huge web, which we call the cosmic web. Imagine, our galaxy is just a small node of this web, like a tiny dot in an infinite network. And this web is constantly changing, expanding, evolving. This discovery was not just numbers or data, it was a reflection of our curiosity. We are small, but our thoughts are infinite. We created a map from the ground to the sky, and from the sky to the stars. And this map is not just of space, it is also of our evolution. Because every time we measure the universe, we also measure ourselves. We understand that we are not part of the cosmic chaos, but we are beings looking for its meaning. Every telescope, every satellite, every data point tells the same story, that man never stops. We explore, we measure, and then we ask the question, what's next? And maybe that same curiosity will take us to the place where time itself started. We saw that the universe started with the Big Bang. But the real question now arises, what was before the Big Bang? This is the question that gave scientists, philosophers and dreamers a similar pause. Because if time and space were born in the Big Bang, then the concept of the past becomes meaningless. Before happens when time exists, and if there was no time, then how could something happen in the past? Still, human curiosity does not stop here. Some scientists said, maybe the Big Bang was not the beginning, but a transition. According to quantum physics, energy fluctuates randomly at the microscopic level, that is, it can be born suddenly and it can also disappear. Some theories say that our universe is also a tiny spark born from such a quantum fluctuation that started everything. Imagine, a nothingness where space, time or matter is nothing and suddenly a small pulse of energy rises which expands and makes the universe. Another theory says that maybe our universe is not alone, but a part of the multiverse. An infinite sea of universes where every universe exists with its own laws and dimensions. If this is the case, then our Big Bang was just a bubble which is one of the innumerable cosmic bubbles. Some scientists gave the idea of a cyclic universe where the universe expands and collapses again and again. After every Big Bang, the universe spreads in billions of years, then gravity pulls it and collapses it and then a new explosion starts, an eternal cosmic heartbeat. Hearing all this, the mind gets confused. But this is the beauty of science, it doesn't give us answers, it gives us questions. Maybe there was no before Big Bang. There were only possibilities, pure potential energy, waiting to be born. And maybe we are a part of that endless cycle which has been going on since ancient times. When we think that time itself started from some origin, then one thing is clear, our existence is not only made of matter, it is also made of mystery. When we look at the night sky, the shining stars that we see are not just light, they are memories of time. Every star, every galaxy is telling us a story, a story of billions of years. Think, the light you are seeing now, maybe it came out of a star when the first human was not even born on earth. We literally see the past, every time we look up. It is strange to understand that we are not observers of this universe, we are a part of it. The atoms inside us, carbon, oxygen, iron, they were all made inside a star. When that star exploded, planets were formed from its dust and eventually we, so when you breathe, the same atoms are revolving inside you which were once in a distant star. We can say that we are stardust which is trying to understand itself. But this story is not only science, it is also philosophy. Because when we ask who we are, the answer is not outside, it is inside. We are fragments of the same cosmic energy which made galaxies, light and time. Big Bang was not just the beginning, it was a connection. An invisible thread which connects every living being to the entire cosmos. Your heartbeat is connected to the motion of galaxies. Your consciousness is made of the same energy which awakened the universe for the first time. Sometimes in the silence of the night, when you are alone and everything seems quiet, actually that silence is also an ancient language of the universe. A vibration which says you are not alone, you are a part of this huge creation. We are all cosmic travelers, we have come on this journey for a short time, passing through the same light, the same dark, and maybe one day we will return to the same nothingness from where everything started. But till then, every breath, every star and every thought is a part of our endless journey which never stops. This is the biggest truth of the universe. Our existence is a beautiful echo And maybe this is the most beautiful mystery of the universe that we are all a part of the same cosmic heartbeat which has been going on for billions of years. Every star, every breath, every thought is telling the same story. You are not separate from the universe, you are the universe itself. And at the end of this endless journey, when silence covers everything, one thing is clearly heard that no matter how small we are, our story is as great as that of the galaxies. And understanding this endless journey is the biggest victory of being human. Jai Hind!