Astronomer — Edwin Hubble (Marshfield, 1889 – San Marino, California, 1953) was an American astronomer, among the most influential of the twentieth century. After studying law and a period as an athlete and teacher, he devoted himself to astronomy, working at the Mount Wilson Observatory with its great 100-inch telescope. In the 1920s he showed that the “spiral nebulae”, such as Andromeda, are in fact galaxies external to the Milky Way, vastly expanding the known size of the universe. In 1929 he established that galaxies recede from us with a velocity proportional to their distance, providing the first observational evidence for the expansion of the universe. This discovery underlies modern cosmology and the Big Bang model.
Curiosity
The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, was named in his honour; the constant that measures the expansion of the universe still bears his name.
Theories and contributions
- Hubble’s law — The recession velocity of a galaxy is proportional to its distance: .
- Extragalactic nature of the nebulae — Showed that many “nebulae” are independent galaxies external to the Milky Way.
Present in chapters
Linked atoms
2 linked atoms.