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Cosmology and Controversy

The Historical Development of Two Theories of the Universe

Helge Kragh

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Princeton University Press img Link Publisher

Naturwissenschaften, Medizin, Informatik, Technik / Naturwissenschaften allgemein

Beschreibung

For over three millennia, most people could understand the universe only in terms of myth, religion, and philosophy. Between 1920 and 1970, cosmology transformed into a branch of physics. With this remarkably rapid change came a theory that would finally lend empirical support to many long-held beliefs about the origins and development of the entire universe: the theory of the big bang. In this book, Helge Kragh presents the development of scientific cosmology for the first time as a historical event, one that embroiled many famous scientists in a controversy over the very notion of an evolving universe with a beginning in time. In rich detail he examines how the big-bang theory drew inspiration from and eventually triumphed over rival views, mainly the steady-state theory and its concept of a stationary universe of infinite age.


In the 1920s, Alexander Friedmann and Georges Lemaître showed that Einstein's general relativity equations possessed solutions for a universe expanding in time. Kragh follows the story from here, showing how the big-bang theory evolved, from Edwin Hubble's observation that most galaxies are receding from us, to the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Sir Fred Hoyle proposed instead the steady-state theory, a model of dynamic equilibrium involving the continuous creation of matter throughout the universe. Although today it is generally accepted that the universe started some ten billion years ago in a big bang, many readers may not fully realize that this standard view owed much of its formation to the steady-state theory. By exploring the similarities and tensions between the theories, Kragh provides the reader with indispensable background for understanding much of today's commentary about our universe.

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Schlagwörter

Observable universe, Chronology of the universe, Nuclear reaction, Recessional velocity, Ylem, Observational astronomy, Matter creation, Calculation, Redshift, Electromagnetic radiation, Neutron capture, Theory of relativity, Quantity, Scientist, Cyclic model, Nucleosynthesis, Steady State theory, Gravitational constant, Cosmogony, Metric expansion of space, Temperature, Gravity, Chemical element, General relativity, Theoretical physics, Neutrino, Fred Hoyle, Wavelength, Quantum mechanics, Jayant Narlikar, Big Bang, De Sitter universe, Universe, Atomic nucleus, Spiral galaxy, Stellar evolution, Cosmic microwave background, Hubble's law, Prediction, Astronomer, Astronomy, Neutron, Theory, Age of the universe, Nebula, Physical cosmology, Physicist, Mach's principle, Cosmological constant, Radio astronomy, Speed of light, Cosmic ray, Supernova, Cepheid variable, Hypothesis, Static universe, Cosmological principle, George Gamow, Salpeter, Antiparticle, Deceleration parameter, Apparent magnitude, Astronomical object, Atomic number, Energy conservation, The Astrophysical Journal, Astrophysics, Alpha particle, Photon, Elementary particle