If the universe was born at the big bang, what existed before then?

To our knowledge, literally nothing existed before the Big Bang. The Big Bang is what created everything. Space was space; quite literally a void of nothingness. If you believe in God like I do, there could be a religious explanation but currently we lack the scientific knowledge to actually be sure of what everything was back then.

For the question What can a spiral galaxy be described as, here is the answer. Spiral galaxies are twisted collections of stars and gas that often have beautiful shapes and are made up of hot young stars. Most spiral galaxies contain a central bulge surrounded by a flat, rotating disk of stars.

Hope that helped! :)

I need to know what the world looked like before the big bang.

What caused the big bang? What prevented the big bang from happening before it actually happened?

Galaxies are composed of stars, dust and dark matter, all held together by gravity. Astronomers aren't certain exactly how galaxies formed. After the Big Bang, space was made up almost entirely of hydrogen and helium.

The question of what existed before the Big Bang is still a topic of ongoing scientific research and debate. Currently, there is no consensus among scientists on what precisely existed before the Big Bang, if anything. However, I can explain the leading scientific theories and concepts that attempt to shed light on this question.

1. The Big Bang Theory: The Big Bang theory suggests that the universe emerged from a singularity, a point of infinite density and temperature, approximately 13.8 billion years ago. According to this theory, time as we know it began with the Big Bang. So, the concept of "before" the Big Bang might not be applicable within the framework of our understanding of time.

2. Inflationary Cosmology: Inflationary cosmology proposes that the universe underwent a phase of exponential expansion immediately after the Big Bang. This theory suggests that there could be other regions of the universe beyond our observable universe, which might have existed before our current universe. However, access to these regions or any evidence of their existence is beyond our current technological capabilities.

3. Multiverse Hypotheses: Some physicists theorize the possibility of a multiverse, a vast ensemble of multiple universes, each with its own set of physical laws and properties. In certain multiverse models, it is speculated that our universe could have originated from a collision between two or more pre-existing universes. However, direct observational evidence for the existence of a multiverse is challenging to obtain.

It is crucial to note that these theories are still being explored and refined. While they provide potential frameworks for understanding what may have preceded the Big Bang, they are currently speculative and require further scientific investigation to gain more insights.