The death of Stephen Hawking is a great loss to the world of Science. At the age of 21, he was paralyzed and doctors gave him only 2 years to live. Cosmology gained because he lived over half a century longer. He could do a lot of great work on the Black Hole theory from his wheel chair. A black hole is a region in space time which exhibits such strong gravitational effects that no particles or electromagnetic radiation such a slight can escape from it. Hawking also researched on the Big Bang, Gravity and other fundamental questions. He held the most prestigious Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge. Isaac Newton was his forerunner. But he disagreed with Newton on God being the prime mover behind the Big Bang. He dismissed the existence of heaven and the afterlife.
Hawking explored the universe. He may not have been the greatest physicist of all time and did not get the Nobel Prize. But nobody denies that he was a giant in cosmology. He was more outstanding than Carl Sagan. Hawking found a rare beauty in mathematical equations. He had a great knack for developing his ideas beautifully. Black hole was his special area but he also explained quantum fluctuations. He could identify tiny irregularities in the dispersion of matter in space-time frame. That’s where stars and galaxies are born. He gave a new turn to astrophysics.