BBC NEWS Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific Arabic Spanish Russian Chinese Welsh
BBCi CATEGORIES   TV   RADIO   COMMUNICATE   WHERE I LIVE   INDEX    SEARCH 

BBC NEWS
 You are in: Sci/Tech
Front Page 
World 
UK 
UK Politics 
Business 
Sci/Tech 
Health 
Education 
Entertainment 
Talking Point 
In Depth 
AudioVideo 


Commonwealth Games 2002

BBC Sport

BBC Weather

SERVICES 
Wednesday, 22 August, 2001, 07:43 GMT 08:43 UK
'Big bang' astronomer dies
Professor Sir Fred Hoyle
Sir Fred challenged the belief the cosmos was caused by an explosion
The English astronomer who coined the term "Big Bang" to describe an academic theory on the creation of the cosmos, has died at the age of 86.

Despite popularising the theory by giving it a name, Professor Sir Fred Hoyle challenged the belief that the cosmos was caused by a huge explosion 12,000 million years ago.

He advocated the "steady state" theory - that the cosmos had no beginning but new galaxies were formed as others moved apart.

Sir Fred also rejected Darwin's theory of evolution, putting forward the so-called Panspermia Theory, which suggests that life, or the building blocks of life, could be carried to planets by comets or drifting interstellar dust particles.

Julie Christie in A for Andromeda
Sir Fred wrote A For Andromeda, which became a BBC-TV series

He believed it had all been arranged by a super-intelligent civilisation who wished to seed our planet.

Sir Fred used this theory as the inspiration for one of his many science-fiction novels, The Black Cloud.

Published in 1957, it described an intelligent cloud of cosmic dust sapping the Sun of solar energy to create a second Ice Age on Earth.

In 1962, Sir Fred wrote A For Andromeda, which became a BBC-TV series, and his play for children, Rockets In Ursa Major, opened in the West End.

Star gazing

Born at Bingley in the West Riding of Yorkshire to wool merchant parents, he could navigate by the stars at the age of 10 and often stayed up all night gazing through his telescope.

Sir Fred was educated at Bingley grammar school and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics.

In 1939, he was elected a fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, and married Barbara Clark.

They had a son and a daughter.

Conducted research

During World War II, Sir Fred conducted research for the Admiralty .

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1957 and knighted in 1972.

Sir Fred founded the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge, where he was Plumian Professor of Astronomy from 1958 until 1972.

He also served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society for two years from 1971.

Internet links:


The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

Links to more Sci/Tech stories are at the foot of the page.


E-mail this story to a friend

Links to more Sci/Tech stories