Johann Madler's Resolution of Olber's Paradox

Abstract

In 1861, some 40 years after Olbers' discussion of the paradox which bears his name, the German astronomer Johann Heinrich Mädler argued that a dark sky would be consistent with an infinite universe if the universe began a finite time in the past. The author shows that Mädler's resolution of Olbers' paradox is essentially the same as the resolution offered by modern cosmologists.