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How gave the Steady State Theory?

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How gave the Steady State Theory?

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  1. In cosmology, the Steady State theory (also known as the Infinite Universe theory or continuous creation) is a model developed in 1948 by Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, Hermann Bondi and others as an alternative to the Big Bang theory (known, usually, as the standard cosmological model). In steady state views, new matter is continuously created as the universe expands, so that the perfect cosmological principle is adhered to. Although the model had a large number of supporters among cosmologists in the 1950s and 1960s, the number of supporters decreased markedly in the late 1960s with the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and today only a very small number of supporters remain. The key importance of the steady-state model is that as a competitor to the Big Bang, it was an impetus in generating some of the most important research in astrophysics, much of which ultimately ended up supporting the Big Bang theory.

    The steady state theory of Bondi, Gold and Hoyle was inspired by the circular plot of the film Dead of Night they watched together. Theoretical calculations showed that a static universe was impossible under general relativity and observations by Edwin Hubble had shown that the universe was expanding. The steady state theory asserts that although the universe is expanding, it nevertheless does not change its look over time (the perfect cosmological principle); it has no beginning and no end.

    The theory requires that new matter must be continuously created (mostly as hydrogen) to keep the average density of matter equal over time. The amount required is low and not directly detectable: roughly one solar mass of baryons per cubic megaparsec per year or roughly one hydrogen atom per cubic meter per billion years, with roughly five times as much dark matter. Such a creation rate would, however, cause observable effects on cosmological scales.

    An aesthetically unattractive feature of the theory is that the postulated spontaneous new matter formation would presumably need to include deuterium, helium, and a small amount of lithium, as well as regular hydrogen, since no mechanism of nucleosynthesis in stars or by other processes accounts for the observed abundance of deuterium and helium-3. (In the Big Bang model, primordial deuterium is made directly after the "bang," before the existence of the first stars).

    Chaotic inflation theory has many similarities with steady state theory, although on a much larger scale than originally envisaged.


  2. What the first guy said, Fred Hoyle.

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