Steady-State Universe

Hoyle, Bondi and Gold

In 1946 Fred Hoyle, Hermann Bondi, and Thomas Gold went together to see the classic horror film Dead of Night, which tells the story of a repeating nightmare. On their return home, Gold suggested producing a cyclical film that one could begin viewing at any point. He then speculated that perhaps the universe might be like this, with no beginning and no end.

Gold wondered whether the universe, as it expanded, was being ‘restocked’ with new matter. While Hoyle could not find a physical explanation for such a process, his mathematical calculations suggested that matter might be continuously created throughout space and time, and that if new matter was being created everywhere all the time, the universe would have to expand to accommodate it.

This photograph of them (left to right: Gold, Bondi, Hoyle) was taken at a conference held during the 1960s.

Hoyle, Bondi and Gold | A New Model for the Expanding Universe

Hoyle's Youth | Hoyle in Cambridge | Steady-State Universe | Stellar Nucleosynthesis | Hoyle vs Ryle | Institute of Theoretical Astronomy | Hoyle on the Radio | Hoyle the Writer | Hoyle the Polymath | Honours and Medals

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