“Up until the 1920s, everyone thought the universe was essentially static and unchanging in time.”
- January 8, 1942 – March 14, 2018
- British
- Theoretical physicist, science writer
- Announced the black hole singularity theorem and Hawking radiation, and contributed to the popularization of science with his book “Talking about the Universe”
Quote
“Up until the 1920s, everyone thought the universe was essentially static and unchanging in time.”
Explanation
In this quote, Stephen Hawking reflects on the dramatic shift in our understanding of the universe that occurred in the early 20th century. Prior to the 1920s, the dominant view of the universe was that it was static, meaning that it was unchanging over time, with no beginning or end. This view, influenced by the Newtonian model of the universe, suggested that the universe was eternal and stable, governed by predictable laws of physics. Many astronomers and scientists believed that the universe had always existed in roughly the same state, with stars, planets, and galaxies existing in a steady state.
However, in the 1920s, two key discoveries revolutionized this view. The first was Edwin Hubble’s observation that galaxies were moving away from each other, implying that the universe itself was expanding. This discovery was a direct challenge to the idea of a static universe. The second was Albert Einstein’s theory of General Relativity, which, when applied to the cosmos, suggested that the universe was dynamic and could either expand or contract over time. These revelations eventually led to the formulation of the Big Bang theory, which proposes that the universe began as a singularity and has been expanding ever since.
Hawking’s mention of this shift underscores how our view of the universe has evolved from a static, unchanging cosmos to a dynamic and ever-changing one. The realization that the universe had a beginning—and might even have an end—transformed not just our understanding of the cosmos but also our philosophical and cultural outlook on existence. This breakthrough opened up new fields of research, leading to advances in cosmology, the study of black holes, and the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Today, the idea of a dynamic, expanding universe is foundational to our understanding of the cosmos, though it continues to raise profound questions about the origins and ultimate fate of the universe itself.
