In a manuscript from 1931 by Albert Einstein, which had been overlooked by researchers of his works, an alternative proposal for the creation of the Universe was found.
The famous scientist suggested that instead of the Big Bang, the Universe was expanding continuously and eternally, a theory that was independently supported by the British physicist Fred Hoyle two decades later.
The theory of the Big Bang began to flourish when the American astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered in the 1920s that the Universe expands. Since the Universe today is larger than yesterday, at some point in its history logic dictates that it was infinitely small, and consequently infinitely dense and active.
In the 1940s, however, Hoyle argued that a mathematically acceptable description would be one in which the Universe expands eternally while keeping its density constant.
For this to happen, new matter would have to be created continuously, which would form new structures such as galaxies and stars that would fill the empty space. Since the Universe would have always been infinite, its size would not change with its expansion.
Einstein describes exactly the same idea in his manuscript: “For the density to remain constant, new particles of matter must be formed continuously», he writes.
Although Albert Einstein himself soon abandoned this idea, and unfortunately for Hoyle he never published it, the same paper reflects his dissatisfaction with the notion that the Universe was created by a Big Bang, even though this idea was fully compatible with his own General Theory of Relativity. Key to this behavior was Einstein's belief that the Universe should be eternal and static, at least apparently.
The text was available to the public visiting Albert Einstein's archives in Jerusalem, but it had been inadvertently neglected, as it had been categorized as the earliest version of another of his publications.
The discovery was made by the Irish physicist Kormak O’Raftertay, who published the full text in the scientific journal European Physical Journal.
