Centuries before Stephen Hawking, an isolated priest imagined black holes

"As geologists were realizing that earthly timescales were vast, astronomers began to discover that the same applied to the distances of the cosmos. In the 16th century, the Polish astronomer Copernicus had argued that it was not the Earth, but the Sun that was at the center of the universe. In the 18th century, astronomers realized that this too was wrong. The Sun was but one star among many moving through that great assembly of stars we call the Milky Way."

"What's more, many Enlightenment thinkers also suspected that the center of the cosmos was not even the Milky Way - they thought there were other galaxies in the depths of space. In the late-17th century, the French physicist and mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace summarized this new cosmic understanding when he wrote, "[M]an now appears, upon on a small planet, almost imperceptible in the vast extent of the solar system, itself only an insensible point in the immensity of space.""

"It was as though humanity's place in the cosmos had shrunk. But John Michell was not daunted by this. Throughout life, his scientific credo was ambitious. He wrote that he wanted to explore "the infinite variety which we find in the works of the creation." He belonged to the Enlightenment era. It was a time characterized by the critique of dogmatic ideas and the enthusiastic exploration of the world through rational argument and experimental methods."

As geologists recognized vast earthly timescales, astronomers discovered enormous cosmic distances. Copernicus displaced Earth from cosmic center by placing the Sun central; later astronomers found the Sun only one star in the Milky Way. Enlightenment thinkers suspected even the Milky Way was not unique and proposed other galaxies. Pierre-Simon Laplace captured the sense of human smallness in space. John Michell maintained an ambitious scientific credo and sought to explore the infinite variety of creation. The Enlightenment emphasized critique of dogma, rational argument, and experimental methods. Michell embraced these ideals, combining priesthood with systematic study of stars' distances, sizes, and masses.

Read at Big Think