The correct answer is, we don't know. We can see back until about 380,000 years when the universe became transparent enough for light to reach us, the cosmic mi

The correct answer is, we don't know. We can see back until about 380,000 years when the universe became transparent enough for light to reach us, the cosmic microwave background. Everything before that is theoretical and depends on the model used, for example cosmic inflation, which has experimental support in so far as it correctly predicts features of the cosmic microwave background. Did inflation actually happen? Maybe. But even if inflation is the correct theory, go back far enough towards time zero and quantum effects become relevant to avoid the classical big bang singularity but we don't have an accepted theory of quantum gravity. So who knows what was actually going on. Observing the cosmic neutrino background could allow us the see past the cosmic microwave background but for the very first moments - if there was such a thing - we will probably have to rely on theory - which we don't have - for the foreseeable future.