Hoyle, Fred(erick) (1915–2001)

English astronomer, cosmologist, and writer. His astronomical research dealt mainly with the internal structure and evolution of the stars. In 1948 he developed with Hermann Bondi and Thomas Gold the steady-state theory of the universe. In 1957, with William Fowler, he showed that chemical elements heavier than hydrogen and helium may be built up by nuclear reactions inside stars. He was knighted in 1972.

Fowler and Hoyle proposed that all the elements may be synthesized from hydrogen by successive fusions. When the gas cloud reaches extremely high temperatures, the hydrogen has turned to helium and neon, whose nuclei interact, releasing particles that unite to build up nuclei of new elements.

In 1964 Hoyle proposed a new theory of gravitation. According to this theory, matter is not evenly distributed throughout space, but forms self-gravitating systems. These may range in diameter from a few kilometres to a million light years. Formed from clouds of hydrogen gas, they vary greatly in density.

He has also suggested that life originated in bacteria and viruses contained in the gas clouds of space and was then delivered to the Earth by passing comets.

Hoyle was born in Bingley, Yorkshire, and studied at Cambridge University. His academic career was spent at Cambridge, where he was a lecturer and later professor of astronomy 1958–73, and at Mount Palomar Observatory, California 1956–66. He was director of the Cambridge Institute of Theoretical Astronomy 1967–73, which he was instrumental in founding. He has also held various visiting professorships in England and the USA. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1957.

His science fiction is generally set in the near future, starting with Fifth Planet (1963), cowritten with his son Geoffrey Hoyle (1942– ). His first science fiction novel was The Black Cloud (1957); he has also written many popular science books. His work on the evolution of stars was published in Frontiers of Astronomy (1955).