Edwin Hubble
Edwin Powell Hubble (November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953)[1] was an American astronomer. He played a crucial role in establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology.[2][3]
This article is about the astronomer. For the politician, see Edwin N. Hubbell. For the jazz trombonist, see Eddie Hubble.
Edwin Hubble
September 28, 1953 (aged 63)
- Newcomb Cleveland Prize (1924)
- Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to Science (1935)
- Bruce Medal (1938)
- Franklin Medal (1939)
- Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1940)
- Legion of Merit (1946)
1918
86th Division, 2nd Battalion, 343 Infantry Regiment
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.[4] He used the strong direct relationship between a classical Cepheid variable's luminosity and pulsation period[5][6] (discovered in 1908 by Henrietta Swan Leavitt[7]) for scaling galactic and extragalactic distances.[8][9]
Hubble provided evidence that the recessional velocity of a galaxy increases with its distance from Earth, a property now known as Hubble's law, although it had been proposed two years earlier by Georges Lemaître.[10] The Hubble law implies that the universe is expanding.[11] 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.[12][13]
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.
Career[edit]
In 1919, Hubble was offered a staff position at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Mount Wilson Observatory, near Pasadena, California, by George Ellery Hale, the founder and director of the observatory. Hubble remained on staff at Mount Wilson until his death in 1953. Shortly before his death, Hubble became the first astronomer to use the newly completed giant 200-inch (5.1 m) reflector Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California.
Hubble also worked as a civilian for U.S. Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland during World War II as the Chief of the External Ballistics Branch of the Ballistics Research Laboratory during which he directed a large volume of research in exterior ballistics which increased the effective firepower of bombs and projectiles. His work was facilitated by his personal development of several items of equipment for the instrumentation used in exterior ballistics, the most outstanding development being the high-speed clock camera, which made possible the study of the characteristics of bombs and low-velocity projectiles in flight. The results of his studies were credited with greatly improving design, performance, and military effectiveness of bombs and rockets. For his work there, he received the Legion of Merit award.[24]
Controversies[edit]
Accusations concerning Lemaître's priority[edit]
In 2011, the journal Nature reported claims that Hubble had played a role in the redaction of key parts of the translation of Lemaître's 1927 paper, which stated what is now called Hubble's Law and also gave observational evidence for it. Historians quoted in the article were skeptical that the redactions were part of a campaign to ensure Hubble retained priority. However, the observational astronomer Sidney van den Bergh published a paper[49] suggesting that while the omissions may have been made by a translator, they may still have been deliberate.
In November 2011, the astronomer Mario Livio reported in Nature that documents in the Lemaître archive demonstrated that the redaction had indeed been carried out by Lemaître himself, who apparently saw little point in including scientific content which had already been reported by Hubble.[37] This, however, does not detract from the fact that Lemaître published[50] in French, without such omissions, two years prior to Hubble.
Attempt at obtaining the Nobel Prize[edit]
At the time, the Nobel Prize in Physics did not recognize work done in astronomy. Hubble spent much of the later part of his career attempting to have astronomy considered an area of physics, instead of being its own science. He did this largely so that astronomers—including himself—could be recognized by the Nobel Prize Committee for their valuable contributions to astrophysics. This campaign was unsuccessful in Hubble's lifetime, but shortly after his death, the Nobel Prize Committee decided that astronomical work would be eligible for the physics prize.[16] However, the prize is not one that can be awarded posthumously.
In popular culture[edit]
In the 1980 documentary Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by astronomer Carl Sagan, Hubble's life and work are portrayed on screen in episode 10: "The Edge of Forever".
The play Creation's Birthday, written by Cornell physicist Hasan Padamsee, tells Hubble's life story.[67]