Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein share a significant date

New Delhi: Legendary scientist Stephen Hawking died on Wednesday, March 14, after suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) - a rare progressive neurodegenerative disease for more than five decades. He was 76.

Coincidentally, March 14 also marks the 139th birth anniversary of the great German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein.

The two famous physicists who in their own inspiring ways changed the way we see the universe, share the significant date.

Best known for his work on black holes, Stephen Hawking theorized that contrary to the prevailing scientific belief that black holes were inescapable for all forms of matter and energy, they actually emitted a form of radiation - now known as Hawking radiation.

Albert Einstein is best known for giving the world's most famous equation, mass energy equivalence formula E=mc2 and the theory of general relativity

The discovery of gravitational waves in 2016 – deemed as the breakthrough of the century – confirmed Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

Stephen Hawking also played a key role in the mathematical effort to unify Einstein’s general theory of relativity with the emergent field of quantum physics.