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๐ญ Famous Astronomers
Stephen Hawking
Greatest physicist of the modern era; decoded black holes; survived ALS for 55 years while changing physics
England ๐ฌ๐ง 1974 Famous Astronomers
Key Facts
- 1
Hawking Radiation (1974): predicted black holes slowly lose mass and eventually evaporate via quantum effects
- 2
"A Brief History of Time" (1988): 237 weeks on bestseller list; 25 million copies sold; explained cosmology to the public
- 3
Confined to wheelchair at 21 due to ALS; communicated via speech synthesiser; held Cambridge's Lucasian Chair (Newton's chair)
๐ Did you know? Hawking was diagnosed with ALS at 21 and given 2 years to live; he survived 55 more years and had 3 children
Quick Reference
Category
Famous Astronomers
Region
๐ฌ๐ง England
Year / Era
1974
About
Greatest physicist of the modern era