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Theory

Big Bang Theory

Astronomy

The big bang theory holds that the universe began from an extremely dense, hot state and has been expanding ever since. It was first framed as the breakup of a single primeval atom, within the mathematics of general relativity, and later provided an early theoretical account of the galaxy recession Edwin Hubble observed.

Facts
Proposed Year
1927 1
Proposed By
Georges Lemaitre 1
Connections

Belongs To

Astronomy, Disciplines
Source Georges Lemaitre (Britannica)
Source Georges Lemaitre (Britannica)

Proposed By

Source Georges Lemaitre (Britannica)

Tested By

Source Arno Penzias (Britannica)
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Georges Lemaitre (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia BritannicaView the Source
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Proposed By: Georges Lemaitre

Hoyle coined the term big bang himself, in a 1949 BBC radio broadcast, intending it dismissively for the model this edge credits to Lemaitre. He continued developing steady-state and quasi-steady-state alternatives for the rest of his career and never accepted the big bang model, even after the 1965 discovery of the cosmic microwave background that the model had predicted and his own theory could not satisfactorily explain. Carried here as the historical dispute it was: Hoyle stayed the model's rival most durable and most publicly identified critic, not a claim that his steady-state alternative was correct.

A dissenting reading, from Fred HoyleFred Hoyle (Wikipedia), Wikipedia

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