My favorite answer is that as we work backward trying to understand the few second of the Universe, we reach 5.39121 x 10
-44 s, a special time defined by one of the founders of quantum theory, Max Plank, as the smallest amount of time that the known laws of physics apply. You can do anything you want and violate all known laws as long as you are done in 5.39121 x 10
-44 of second. The catch is, at the speed of light, you can only move about 1.6 × 10
−35 meters, not much room at all.
This is a limit to time, like c is the limit to velocity. Nothing can ever be known before the first 5.39121 x 10
-44 second and nothing ever will.
I really do like this
Timeline of the Big Bang although I have reservations about the part before "The quark epoch" (10
-12 s). I don't believe we really know a lot about that yet. When the Large Hadron Collier at CERN starts up, we might find out more about it!
Welcome!
ooooooo, my 137th POST!