Time governs everything. It dictates the motion of planets, the lifespan of stars, and the beating of a human heart. Yet, the greatest mystery in physics is how time itself began. Was there ever a moment when time did not exist? And if so, what triggered its emergence?
Scientists believe time was born in chaos, in the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang. But this moment was unlike anything we can imagine. Instead of a smooth beginning, the universe may have boiled with energy, creating an explosion of forces, particles, and cosmic structures that shaped the reality we see today.
To understand time’s origins, we must look at what happened in the first instant after the Big Bang. The answers may not only reveal the birth of time but also solve some of the biggest mysteries in the universe—including why anything exists at all.
The Big Bang Did Not Happen in Time—It Created Time
Many people imagine the Big Bang as an explosion inside space and time. But this is incorrect. The Big Bang was not an event happening inside the universe—it was the moment the universe itself came into existence. There was no “before,” because before implies time, and time had not yet been born.
This raises a problem: if time itself was created in the Big Bang, how can we talk about what happened during those first moments? This is one of the biggest challenges in cosmology. Physicists have pushed our understanding of physics back to the first one-trillionth of a second after the Big Bang, but beyond that, our theories collapse.
At the moment of the Big Bang, the universe was infinitely small, filled with unimaginable energy, and governed by a single unified force. Today, we recognize four fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. But in the first instant of time, these forces may have been merged together.
As the universe expanded, this unified force began to break apart, giving rise to the physical laws we observe today. But this transition was not smooth—it may have been chaotic and turbulent, reshaping the fabric of space-time itself.
The Universe May Have Boiled with Cosmic Bubbles
We often think of the Big Bang as a rapid expansion of space. But what if the early universe behaved like a boiling liquid?
Physicists believe that as the fundamental forces separated, they created violent phase transitions, similar to how water turns into steam. This process may have caused the universe to fill with bubbles—regions where the laws of physics were temporarily different. These bubbles expanded, merged, and eventually stabilized, shaping the fundamental structure of the cosmos.
These early cosmic bubbles weren’t just random disturbances. They may have played a crucial role in solving some of the deepest mysteries in physics—including the unexplained imbalance between matter and antimatter.
Did These Bubbles Decide the Fate of the Universe?
One of the biggest problems in modern physics is why there is more matter than antimatter. According to known physical laws, every particle of matter should be created with an identical antimatter counterpart. If that were true, the two would cancel each other out, leaving behind a universe filled with nothing but radiation.
Yet, somehow, matter won. The universe is filled with galaxies, stars, and planets—not an empty void of energy.
Some scientists believe the edges of these cosmic bubbles provided the conditions needed to tip the balance. These regions would have been highly unstable, creating the perfect environment for unknown processes that favored the creation of matter over antimatter. This tiny asymmetry—possibly caused by violent cosmic bubble collisions—may be the reason why you, and everything else, exist today.
Could These Bubbles Have Created Dark Matter and Primordial Black Holes?
The extreme energy inside these bubbles may have had even greater consequences. Some physicists suggest that bubble collisions could have produced dark matter, the mysterious, invisible substance that makes up most of the universe’s mass.
But even more astonishing is the idea that these collisions may have been so intense that they formed primordial black holes—black holes that existed before stars were even born. Unlike ordinary black holes, which form from the collapse of massive stars, these primordial black holes may have emerged purely from fluctuations in energy density. If this is true, some of these ancient black holes may still exist today, quietly drifting through space.
If these violent transitions shaped the early universe, they should have left behind clues. Scientists are now searching for two key pieces of evidence.
First, there may be cosmic strings—theoretical defects in space-time that were left behind when different bubbles merged. These cosmic scars, if found, could provide a direct link to the first moments of the universe.
Second, and even more exciting, are gravitational waves. When these cosmic bubbles expanded and collided, they would have sent ripples through the fabric of space-time, much like how an earthquake sends seismic waves through the Earth. These primordial gravitational waves may still be moving through the universe today.
