Scientists
Georges Lemaitre
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
Georges Lemaitre was a Belgian priest, astronomer and physicist who formulated the modern big bang theory, explaining the recession of the galaxies within Einstein's general relativity.
Facts
FieldAstronomy and cosmology 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Founded
Credited as founder of physical cosmology and the Big Bang theory specifically, not of cosmological speculation generally, which is far older.
Proposed
Works In
Sources
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Proposed: Big Bang Theory
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
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.