Sir Fred Hoyle (1915 – 2001) was an English astronomer who worked at the university of Cambridge. He was best known for proposing a theory of stellar nucleosynthesis – that most elements were formed by nuclear processes in stars. He also proposed a steady state theory of the universe where the universe was being constantly formed with new material being added at a steady rate, as opposed to what he referred to as a 'big bang' where everything was created at once. (His term has been widely adopted, even if it wax intended as a rather dismissive tag.) Hoyle also worked with a colleague, Chandra Wickramasinghe, to suggest an alternative to theories of how life started on earth: that it was seeded from space (in particular in material slowly dispersed as the icy matter of comets evaporate). Although this view has not been widely adopted, the seemingly unlikely notion that very simply forms of life can sometimes be viably transferred between heavenly bodies is now given credence.
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