The most excepted, mainstream theory for the origin of the universe (The Big Bang), tells us how the universe itself was created in an enormous explosion some 13.7 billion years ago. Before that explosion, there was no time, no space, no energy, and no matter. Right there in that first instant, time began.
Because there was so much pure energy all of a sudden, space itself couldn't stand it. From just about nothing, space zoomed faster than thought to an enormous size. If this expansion wouldn't have happened,
gravity would have sucked the initial universe back into the nothingness it came from.
That first zoom happened a whole lot faster than the speed of light and is called
inflation. At the incredible temperatures and energies of that first instant, nothing, not even
matter was stable and as quick as it could form, it turned back into pure
energy. But during the continued expansion, the universe cooled, and gradually the basic pieces of normal matter were formed from the incredible energy.
