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I'm writing some lore for a fictional world, which is set in the 50's early 60's roughly.

One thing I'd like to bring is a fairly grounded explanation for the creation of the planet and the universe, as understood by scientists in the fictional setting.

What did we know about these topics back in the 50's? How did we used to believe the planet were formed?

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    $\begingroup$ An awful lot. Telescopes had been around for quite some time. We hadn't observed planets in other solar systems yet but the big bang theory had gotten off the ground. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Big_Bang_theory $\endgroup$ – farrenthorpe Jan 22 '17 at 3:12
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    $\begingroup$ Expanding Earth was a nice idea of the time. Actually a very good concept, but unfortunately it is wrong. $\endgroup$ – Tactopoda Jan 22 '17 at 5:04
  • $\begingroup$ in 1950 there was already geology, minerology, seismology, geological time, geological surveys. Prior to that is more fascinating. They thought the moon could have plants on it, it was not unreasonable, same with the other planets, jules verne gives a good idea of technology in 1900, science was the big topic of the day. they made a million machines. youtu.be/_FrdVdKlxUk?t=352 $\endgroup$ – com.prehensible Jan 22 '17 at 9:20
  • $\begingroup$ Maybe not directly answering your question, but this was just before the understanding of plate tectonics. Continental drift had been suggested but they didn't know the mechanism. $\endgroup$ – haresfur Jan 22 '17 at 20:45
  • $\begingroup$ I assume you mean 1950's not 1850's. For example British Geological Survey (as is named today) was formed in 1835 $\endgroup$ – nmtoken Jan 23 '17 at 8:16

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