The theory couldn't explain the existence of this faint glow that permeated the Universe, but Big Bang theory could: the CMB might be nothing less than left over radiation from the Big Bang.Ī map of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) formed from data taken by the Planck spacecraft. The discovery of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation in 1964 provided the first nail in the coffin of the steady state theory. As it happened, he helped to demolish it. Indeed, had Hawking been allowed to study under the PhD supervisor of his choice, the astronomer Fred Hoyle, he would have been drawn into defending this theory. The then accepted theory of the history of the Universe, the steady state theory, held that the Universe had existed forever. The fact that they are now is to no small extent due to Hawking himself.Īt the beginning of 1960s the idea that the Universe might have sprung from an extremely hot and dense beginning - a Big Bang – was hardly more than scientific speculation, much like the entire field of cosmology was barely considered a legitimate part of science. When Stephen Hawking started his career in the early 1960s neither of these two statements was true. Ask a physicist about the same concepts and he or she will tell you they are accepted components of our theory of the Universe. Ask a 12-year-old child to explain the Big Bang or a black hole and chances are you'll get a reasonably correct answer.
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