In 1917 Albert Einstein faced a confusing problem

as he tried to reconcile his new theory of gravity, the general theory of relativity, with the limited understanding of the universe at the time. Like most of his contemporaries, Einstein was convinced that the universe must be static--neither expanding nor contracting--but this desired state was not consistent with his equations of gravity. In desperation, Einstein added an extra, ad hoc cosmological term to his equations to counterbalance gravity and allow for a static solution.

This article was originally published with the title A Cosmic Conundrum.

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