Edwin Hubble

Edwin Powell Hubble (November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953) was an American astronomer. He helped us learn more about space beyond our own galaxy.

Hubble proved that many objects we thought were clouds in space, called "nebulae," were really galaxies far away from our Milky Way. He used a special method to measure how far away these objects were, thanks to the work of Henrietta Swan Leavitt.

In 1929, Hubble found that galaxies farther away move faster from us. This idea, called Hubble's law, showed that the universe is expanding. His discoveries changed how we understand space.

Today, the Hubble Space Telescope is named after him in honor of his work. You can see a model of the telescope in his hometown of Marshfield, Missouri.

Early life and education

Edwin Hubble was born in 1889 in Marshfield, Missouri, and later moved to Wheaton, Illinois. He was good at sports, playing baseball, football, and track and field, and he did well in school except in spelling.

He studied mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy at the University of Chicago and earned a Bachelor of Science degree by 1910. Later, as a Rhodes Scholar, he went to The Queen's College, Oxford to study jurisprudence, keeping a promise to his father. After his father passed away, Hubble decided not to practice law and instead taught physics and mathematics at New Albany High School. He then returned to the University of Chicago to study astronomy at the Yerkes Observatory, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1921.

Career

In 1919, Edwin Hubble began working at the Mount Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, California. He worked there until he passed away in 1953. Just before that, he was the first to use a very large telescope called the Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory.

During World War II, Hubble helped the United States Army by studying ways to improve weapons. He made special tools for this work, including a fast camera.

Discoveries

Universe goes beyond the Milky Way galaxy

Edwin Hubble came to Mount Wilson Observatory in California in 1919. At that time, people thought our universe was just the Milky Way galaxy.

Using the big telescope there, Hubble studied special stars called Cepheid variables. He compared how bright they looked to how bright they really are to find out how far away they were. Hubble found these stars in places called nebulae, like the Andromeda Nebula and the Triangulum Nebula. In 1924, he proved these nebulae were actually whole galaxies far outside our Milky Way. This changed how scientists saw the universe.

Hubble also made a way to sort galaxies into different groups by how they looked in pictures. This is called the Hubble sequence.

Redshift increases with distance

Hubble studied 24 galaxies. He measured how far away they were and how their light was stretched, called redshift. He found that the farther away a galaxy was, the faster it seemed to be moving away. This is called Hubble's law.

At the time, people didn’t know why the light was stretched. Today we know it is because the universe is expanding. Hubble’s work showed that the universe was much bigger and more complex than people thought before.

Personal life

Edwin Hubble married Grace Lillian Burke in 1924. Though he grew up in a Protestant Christian family, he sometimes seemed unsure about his beliefs later.

In July 1949, Hubble had a health problem while on vacation in Colorado. His wife helped him, and he followed a special diet and changed his work. Sadly, he passed away in San Marino, California, in 1953. His wife did not share where he was buried, and there was no funeral. His papers, including letters and notes, are kept at the Huntington Library in San Marino.

Controversies

Some people wondered if Edwin Hubble took ideas that belonged to another scientist, Georges Lemaître. Lemaître wrote about similar ideas in 1927, but in French. When his work was translated into English in 1931, some parts were missing. Some believed this was done so Hubble would get more recognition, while others thought Lemaître removed the parts because Hubble had shared similar ideas in 1929.

Hubble also worked hard to include astronomy in the Nobel Prize in Physics. At that time, the Nobel Prize in Physics did not include astronomy. Hubble wanted astronomers to be recognized for their work in astrophysics. Although he wasn’t successful during his lifetime, not long after he passed away, the Nobel Committee decided to include astronomical work for the physics prize.

Honors

Edwin Hubble received many awards for his important work. He was given the Newcomb Cleveland Prize in 1924, the Bruce Medal in 1938, the Franklin Medal in 1939, and the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1940. He also received the Legion of Merit in 1946 for his work on ballistics research.

Hubble was recognized by being elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1927 and the American Philosophical Society in 1929. Several things were named after him, including an asteroid called 2069 Hubble, a crater on the Moon, and the famous Hubble Space Telescope. There is also a planetarium, a highway, and a middle school named in his honor.

In 2008, the United States Postal Service created a stamp to honor Hubble as part of a sheet called "American Scientists." The stamp highlights his big discoveries about the universe and how he showed that there are galaxies beyond our own Milky Way. Other scientists featured on the stamp include Gerty Cori, Linus Pauling, and John Bardeen.

In popular culture

A play named Creation's Birthday was written by a scientist named Hasan Padamsee. The play tells the story of Edwin Hubble's life.