Thomas Gold

Thomas Gold (May 22, 1920 – June 22, 2004) was an Austrian-born American astrophysicist, a professor of astronomy at Cornell University.Bondi H. 2006. Thomas Gold. 22 May 1920 – 22 June 2004: Elected FRS 1964. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 52: 117–135. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2006.0009 He was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Gold was one of three Cambridge University scientists who in 1948 proposed the "steady state" theory of the universe. This theory is now mostly abandoned. Gold's work crossed boundaries of academic and scientific disciplines, into biophysics, astronomy, aerospace engineering, and geophysics.

One idea of his is still debated. It is that life started either deep in the ocean or deep in the Earth's mantle. He also thought that as petroleum and its hydrocarbons were present across the entire universe, there was no reason to believe "that on Earth they must be biological in origin".Gold T. & Soter S. 1982. "Abiogenic methane and the origin of petroleum", Energy Exploration & Exploitation, 1 (2): 89–104, doi:10.1177/014459878200100202, ISSN 0144-5987, S2CID 135282142

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Category:1920 births
Category:2004 deaths
Category:American astronomers
Category:Astrophysicists
Category:Cornell University faculty
Category:Scientists from Vienna