Thomas Gold: Astrophysicist and Cosmologist
Early Life:
Thomas Gold was born on May 22, 1920, in Vienna, Austria. He came from a family of intellectuals; his father was a well-known conductor, and his mother was a pianist. Fleeing the rise of the Nazis, the Gold family emigrated to England in 1934 when Thomas was a teenager.
Education:
Gold attended the Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied engineering and graduated with honors in 1942. During World War II, he contributed to radar research for the British Army.
Work on Radar Development:
Gold’s early career was marked by his involvement in the development of radar. He worked at the Telecommunications Research Establishment, where he made significant contributions to the understanding and improvement of radar systems.
Move to the United States:
After the war, Thomas Gold moved to the United States to work at the Cornell University Signal Research Laboratory. There, he collaborated with physicists like Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger.
Steady-State Theory:
In the 1940s and 1950s, Gold became involved in theoretical astrophysics. He, along with Hermann Bondi and Fred Hoyle, developed the steady-state theory of the universe in 1948. The steady-state theory proposed that the universe is continuously expanding but maintains a constant density over time due to the continuous creation of matter.
Work on Pulsars:
In the 1960s, Gold made significant contributions to the discovery and understanding of pulsars, which are rotating neutron stars emitting beams of electromagnetic radiation. His work, along with the work of others, helped elucidate the nature of these celestial objects.
Later Academic Career:
Thomas Gold held academic positions at Harvard University and Cornell University. He became a professor of astronomy at Cornell in 1957 and later served as the director of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research.
Work on the Moon’s Origin:
Gold proposed the “double planet” hypothesis for the Moon’s origin, suggesting that the Moon was captured by the Earth’s gravitational field early in the solar system’s history.
Controversies and Criticisms:
Gold’s unconventional ideas and refusal to accept certain prevailing scientific paradigms led to controversies and criticisms throughout his career. Despite this, he maintained his unique perspective on various scientific questions.
Personal Life:
Thomas Gold was known for his eccentricities, both in his scientific ideas and personal life. He was an avid collector of antique scientific instruments and had a keen interest in archaeology.
Death:
Thomas Gold passed away on June 22, 2004, at the age of 84. Despite the controversies surrounding some of his ideas, Gold’s contributions to radar technology, astrophysics, and cosmology left a lasting impact on the scientific community.
