[title: Excerpt from "The Steady-State Theory," from SchoolsObservatory.org.uk]

The Steady-State Theory

An alternative theory to the Big Bang was proposed in 1948 by Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold, and Sir Fred Hoyle It was called the steady-state theory. They found the idea of a sudden beginning to the universe philosophically unsatisfactory. Bondi and Gold suggested that in order to understand the universe we needed to make observations of its distant parts, which would of necessity be observations from the past. In order to interpret those observations we must use the laws of physics, and those have been formulated at the present time. If the state of the universe was different in the past how could we be sure that the laws of physics were not different in the past as well? If they were different no valid conclusions could be drawn. For Bondi and Gold not only would the laws of physics have to be the same in all parts of the universe, but at all times as well. The Universe would also be the same, always static, always contracting or always expanding. The first two could be ruled ut by the simple observation that the sky is dark at night. (see Olber's Paradox)

Hoyle approached the problem mathematically and tried to solve the problem of the creation of the matter seen all around us, which in the Big Bang theory is all created at the start. He proposed that the decrease in the density of the universe caused by its expansion is exactly balanced by the continuous creation of matter condensing into galaxies that take the place of the galaxies that have receded from the Milky Way, thereby maintaining forever the present appearance of the universe. In order to produce the matter, a reservoir of energy would be required. In order to prevent this reservoir being diluted, by the creation of matter and by the expansion of the universe, he made this reservoir negative. The expansion and creation now work against each other and a steady state of energy is maintained.

-- from http://www.schoolsobservatory.org.uk/study/sci/cosmo/internal/steady.htm