Astronomy: Edwin Hubble

Astronomy: Edwin Hubble
Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
Edwin Hubble Edwin Powell Hubble (November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953) was an American astronomer. He played a crucial role in establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology.

Commentary

Commentary

Edwin Hubble Edwin Powell Hubble (November 20, 1889 – September 28, 195 3) was an American astronomer. He played a crucial role in establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology. Hubble proved that many objects previously thought to be clouds of dust and gas and classified as "nebulae" were actually galaxies beyond the Milky Way.

Commentary

Why Edwin Hubble matters: The people behind the discoveries remind us that science is a human endeavour -- driven by curiosity, persistence, and often the courage to challenge accepted ideas. He used the stro ng direct relationship between a classical Cepheid variable's luminosity and pulsation period (discovered in 1908 by Henrietta Swan Leavitt) for scaling galactic and extragalactic distances. Hubble confirmed in 1929 that the recessional velocity of a galaxy increases with its distance from Earth, a behavior that became known as Hubble's law, although it had been proposed two years earlier by Georges Lemaître. The Hubble law implies that the universe is expanding. A decade before, the American astronomer Vesto Slipher had provided the first evidence that the light from many of these nebulae was strongly red-shifted, indicative of high recession velocities. Hubble's name is most widely recognized for the Hubble Space Telescope, which was named in his honor, with a model prominently displayed in his hometown of Marshfield, Missouri.

Commentary

Deep dive: Edwin Hubble Hubble confirmed in 1929 that the recessional velocity of a galaxy increases with its distance from Earth, a behavior that b ecame known as Hubble's law, although it had been proposed two years earlier by Georges Lemaître. The Hubble law implies that the universe is expanding. A decade before, the American astronomer Vesto Slipher had provided the first evidence that the light from many of these nebulae was strongly red-shifted, indicative of high recession velocities. Hubble's name is most widely recognized for the Hubble Space Telescope, which was named in his honor, with a model prominently displayed in his hometown of Marshfield, Missouri. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Hubble (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)