How did the Big Bang start?

Question: How did the Big Bang start?

Asked by bobo to Iain, Jo, Leo, Mariam on 23 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
- Iain Moal answered on 23 Jun 2010:
  
  Nobody knows. Some people pretend they know, but they don’t. Physicists are working towards this though. They now know what happened a tiny fraction of a second after the big bang, and are working backwards, but they aren’t there yet.
- Mariam Orme answered on 23 Jun 2010:
  
  I’m sorry bobo, I have no idea about this kind of thing!
- Leo Garcia answered on 23 Jun 2010:
  
  At the moment, scientists are unsure as to what caused the Big Bang – although our understanding of the conditions closer and closer in time towards the event itself improves each day. For instance, the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva recreates some of the conditions less than a billionth of a second after the Big Bang.
  
  I saw this interesting talk:
  
  By the scientist Lawrence Krauss, in which he describes some of the latest scientific theories which hint that a universe from nothing is, perhaps, inevitable because of the nature of ‘nothing’ in the real world. It’s a great talk and well worth a watch.
  
  One of the things that always blows my mind about the Big Bang is that it marks the start of both space AND TIME. Before the Big Bang, there was neither space, nor time. Amazing!
  
  So, with regards to what caused the Big Bang – we don’t know. But we do know a lot about what happened in the time just afterwards, and you can read some of what we know here:
  
  http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/universe/origins-universe-article.html
  
  And this outstanding video by Brian Cox, OBE:
- Joanna Watson answered on 23 Jun 2010:
  
  No one knows, maybe you or someone who is your age now will work it out in the future.

Question: How did the Big Bang start?

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