Ask Ethan: Could We Be Living In A Steady-State Universe?
“In science, we don’t really prove or disprove hypotheses, but the data can either validate or refute the predictions of any particular hypothesis. In the case of the Steady-State theory, it yields at least four meaningful predictions that conflict with the data we have. This might serve as a practical refutation of the Steady State theory’s central ideas, but it’s even more valuable as an illustration of how science successfully works. Let’s examine the evidence for ourselves.”
When we talk about where our Universe came from, it won’t surprise you to learn that the Big Bang, with a few small variations between models, is really the only game in town that fits all the data. But in the early days of cosmology, this wasn’t necessarily the case, as there were many interpretations that fit the data we had. The most famous competitor to the Big Bang was the Steady-State theory, which made different concrete predictions from the Big Bang.
It wasn’t the discovery of the cosmic microwave background that completely disfavored the Steady-State model, but four subsequent observations that came way after. Here’s how we know, today, that Steady-State cosmology is so over.
