A Temperature for Space was Predicted Long Before the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation was Discovered and Decades Before the Big Bang was Proposed

I recently listened to a fascinating interview of André Koch Torres Assis on the DemystifySci YouTube channel, run by Anastasia Bendebury and Michael Shilo DeLay.

The interview is more than two and half hours long. The section from 0:40:06 to 1:10:31 is, in my mind, crucial. Therein, André Assis is arguing that the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, currently estimated at 3.1K, and first detected by Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson in 1964, is not necessarily to be understood as proof of the Big Bang. In particular, he explains that a number of researchers, who, supposing a static universe, made predictions of a “temperature of the universe” long before Penzias and Wilson’s discovery. In this post, I will provide a detailed bibliography of these predictions.

Assis has been examining, with his colleagues Marcos C.D. Neves and Domingos S.L. Soares, this historical question since 1995, i.e., for more than 30 years, and have organized the translation of those researchers who published in French (Guillaume) or German (Regener and Nernst). Below are by some papers by Assis and his colleagues:

• A. K. T. Assis and M. C. D. Neves, “History of the 2.7 K temperature prior to Penzias and Wilson”, Apeiron 2:79-84, 1995. Available at: https://www.ifi.unicamp.br/~assis/Apeiron-V2-p79-84(1995).pdf

• A. K. T. Assis and M. C. D. Neves, “The redshift revisited”, Astrophysics and Space Science 227:13-24, 1995. This paper was also published in: A. L. Peratt (ed.), Plasma Astrophysics and Cosmology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1995, pp. 13-24. Available at:
  https://www.ifi.unicamp.br/~assis/Astrophys-Space-Sci-V227-p13-24(1995).pdf

• A. K. T. Assis, M. C. D. Neves and D. S. L. Soares, “Hubble’s cosmology: From a finite expanding universe to a static endless universe”. In: F. Potter (editor), 2nd Crisis in Cosmology Conference (CCC-2), Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, 2009, pp. 255-267. APS Conference Series, Volume 413. Available at:

  https://www.ifi.unicamp.br/~assis/Hubbles-cosmology(2009).pdf

Here is a summary of the estimates from 1896 to 1954, along with the publications and translations to English from the French and German:

• Charles Édouard Guillaume (1861-1938): 5.67K in 1896.

Ch.Ed. Guillaume. La température de l’espace. La Nature 1214:210–211,234 (1896).

A. K. T. Assis and M. C. D. Neves, “Complete and commented translation of Guillaume's 1896 paper on the temperature of space”, American Journal of Physics 88:1140-1144, 2020. Available at:
https://www.ifi.unicamp.br/~assis/Am-J-Phys-V88-p1140-1144(2020).pdf

• Arthur S. Eddington (1882-1944): 3.18K in 1926.

Arthur S. Eddington. The Internal Constitution of the Stars. Cambridge University Press, 1988, pp. 371–372. Reprint of 1926 edition.

A. S. Eddington. “Bakerian Lecture: Diffuse matter in interstellar space”. Proc.R.Soc.A. 111:424–456, 1926.

In the Bakerian lecture, Eddington refers to an estimate by Sydney Chapman.

S. Chapman. “On the total light of the stars”. Mon.Not.R.Astron.Soc. 74:446–451, 1914.

• Erich Rudolf Alexander Regener (1881–1955): 2.8K in 1933.

E. Regener. “Der Energiestrom der Ultrastrahlung”. Z.Phys. 80:666–669, 1933.

E. Regener. “The energy flux of cosmic rays”. Apeiron 2, 85–86 (1995). In the pdf of the “History” paper above. English translation by G. Moesle.

• Walther Hermann Nernst (1864–1941): 2.8K in 1937–1938.

W. Nernst. “Weitere Prüfung der Annahne eines stationären Zustandes im Weltall”. Z.Phys. 106:633–661, 1937.

W. Nernst. “Further investigation of the stationary universe hypothesis”. Apeiron 2:58–71, 1995. English translation by P. Huber et al. Available at: https://cosmology.info/apeiron/pdf/v02no3/v02n3ner.pdf

W. Nernst, “Die Strahlungstemperatur des Universums”. Ann.Phys. 32:44–48, 1938.

W. Nernst, “The radiation temperature of the universe”. Apeiron 2:86–87, 1995. In the pdf of the “History” paper above. English translation by G. Moesle.

Peter Huber and Toivo Jaakkola. “The static universe of W. Nernst”. Apeiron 2:53-57, 1995. Available at: https://cosmology.info/apeiron/pdf/v02no3/v02n3int.pdf

• Gerhard Herzberg (1904–1999): 2.3K in 1941.

Herzberg, Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure, Volume 1: Spectra of Diatomic Molecules. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1941.

• Erwin Finlay-Freundlich (1885–1964), with comments by Max Born (1882-1970): between 1.9K and 6.0K in 1953-1954.

E. Finlay-Freundlich. “Über die Rotverschiebung der Spektrallinien”. Nachr. Akad. Wiss. Göttingen Math.-Phys. 7:95–102, 1953.

Max Born. “Theoretische Bemerkungen zu Freundlich’s Formel für die stellare Rotverschiebung”. Nachr. Akad. Wiss. Göttingen Math.-Phys. 7:102–108, 1953.

E. Finlay-Freundlich. “Red-shifts in the spectra of celestial bodies”. Proc.Phys.Soc.A. 67:192–193, 1954.

Max Born. “Red-shifts in the spectra of celestial bodies”. Proc.Phys.Soc.A. 67:193-194, 1954.

E. Finlay-Freundlich. “Red shifts in the spectra of celestial bodies”. Philos. Mag. 45:303–319, 1954.

It is important to remember that none of these predictions presupposed a Big Bang at the beginning of the Universe.

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