I asked a question yesterday during the "Space Dust" Ji Woong-bae Author Talk

I am a fan of Professor Ji Woong-bae, who speaks more articulately and enjoyably on YouTube than usual.
Yesterday, I attended his Author Talk at the municipal library.
He gave a captivating lecture titled "A Star to Earthlings," which felt like watching a documentary film, and he also took the time to sincerely answer questions written on Post-it notes in advance.
I was so proud that my question was selected, and I even received a signed book as a gift.
For other questions, he would start his answers with his signature phrase, "That is a very good question," but for my question, he specifically started by saying, "That is a very difficult question to answer," which made me wonder if I had touched a raw nerve in astronomy.
The question I asked was:
"I am curious if there is any ongoing research regarding the space that surrounded the universe immediately after the Big Bang."
Space Dust's answer: It is a very difficult question to answer. Since we live in space, it is natural to think that there is also space surrounding the universe, but space outside the universe does not exist, and time before the Big Bang does not exist either.
Astronomers—and I, in particular—are not even curious about the space outside the universe.