British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has done a lot of thinking about the nature of the universe. While the renowned scientist has lived most of his 71 years with a paralyzing disease, his pioneering efforts to unlock the secrets of the cosmos have revolutionized astrophysics and captured the imagination of millions
Astrophysicst Stephen Hawking
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Portrait of a young Stephen Hawking, May 17, 1963. (Howard Grey)
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Stephen Hawking visits the London Science Museum’s exhibit on his life and work. (Sarah Lee)
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Some of the Hawking memorabilia on display at London’s Science Museum exhibition marking the scientist’s 70th birthday. (Science Museum PA)
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The model built for Hawking in the early 1970s to show the deep gravitational “well” that black holes create in the fabric of space-time, from which not even light can escape. (Whipple Museum of the History of Science)
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These two globular star clusters, located beyond our Milky Way galaxy, harbor hundreds of thousands of stars. Deep within the clusters’ dense cores, stars whirl rapidly around intermediate-sized black holes. (NASA/Hubble)
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Seorang militan pro-Rusia di posisi pertahanan terdepan dengan senjata mesin di kota Slovyansk (19/5). (Reuters/Yannis Behrakis)
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The smallest known black hole – part of a binary star system named XTE J1650-500 – is about 3.8 times more massive than our Sun. (NASA/CXC/A. Hobar)
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This cosmic beach ball displays a full-sky map of the microwave radiation left over from the Big Bang event that created the universe 13.7 billion years ago. (NASA)
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A sketch from Hawking’s notes illustrates the phenomenon of black hole radiation by showing that quantum effects cause electromagnetic particles to fleetingly form just outside the hole. (Hawking Family Archive)
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Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, published in 1988, has been an international best seller, with over 10 million copies in print. (Science Museum PA)
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Stephen Hawking, almost totally paralyzed since 1970 by ALS, enjoys a few moments of weightlessness during a flight aboard Zero Gravity Corp.’s modified Boeing 727. (Jim Campbell, Aero-News Network)
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Stephen Hawking lecturing on the future of space exploration at a 2008 George Washington University event marking NASA’s 50th anniversary. (NASA/Paul E. Alers)
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President Barack Obama talks with Stephen Hawking in the Blue Room of the White House before a ceremony presenting him and 15 others the Presidential Medal of Freedom, August 12, 2009. The Medal of Freedom is the nation's highest civilian honor. (Officia