![]() However Shapley, like most astronomers of the time, still thought that the Milky Way was all there was to the Universe. His result of 300 000 light-years for the width of the galaxy was roughly 10 times the previously accepted value. Shapley had used a method pioneered by Henrietta Leavitt at the Harvard College Observatory that relied on the behaviour of standardised light variations from bright stars called Cepheid variables to establish the distance of an object. On the mountain Hubble encountered his greatest scientific rival, Harlow Shapley, who had already made his reputation by measuring the size of the Milky Way, our own Galaxy. Mount Wilson was the centre of observational work underpinning the new astrophysics, later called cosmology, and the 100-inch Hooker Telescope, then the most powerful on Earth, had just been completed and installed after nearly a decade of work. ![]() Hubble was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. He went immediately to the Mount Wilson Observatory, where the newly discharged Major Hubble, as he invariably introduced himself, arrived, still in uniform, but ready to start observing. He served in France and next returned to the United States in 1919. After sitting up all night to finish his PhD thesis and taking the oral examination the next morning, Hubble enlisted in the infantry and telegraphed Hale: "Regret cannot accept your invitation. This was a great opportunity, but it came in April of a dreadful year. The famous British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking wrote in his book A Brief History of Time that Hubble's "discovery that the Universe is expanding was one of the great intellectual revolutions of the 20th century." Who could have guessed such a future for Edwin when he began his PhD in Astronomy at Chicago University in 1914? War postpones Hubble's astronomical debutĮarly in 1917, while still finishing the work for his doctorate, Hubble was invited by George Ellery Hale, founder of the Mount Wilson Observatory, in Pasadena, California, to join the staff there. When the school term ended in May 1914, Hubble decided to pursue his first passion and so returned to university as a graduate student to study more astronomy. His popularity as a teacher is recorded in the school yearbook dedicated to him: "To our beloved teacher of Spanish and Physics, who has been a loyal friend to us in our senior year, ever willing to cheer and help us both in school and on the field, we, the class of 1914, lovingly dedicate this book." He was also hired by New Albany High School (New Albany, Indiana) in the autumn of 1913 to teach Spanish, Physics and Mathematics, and to coach basketball. The beloved high school teacher and coach ![]() Here he passed the bar examination and practised law half-heartedly for a year in Kentucky, where his family was then living. He studied Roman and English Law at Oxford and returned to the United States only in 1913. There, a promise made to his dying father, who never accepted Edwin's infatuation for astronomy, led him to study law rather than science, although he also took up Literature and Spanish. The Rhodes scholarĪ tall, powerfully built young man, Hubble loved basketball and boxing, and the combination of athletic prowess and academic ability earned him a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford. He finally obtained a degree in Mathematics and Astronomy in 1910. He paid his expenses by tutoring, working in the summer and, in his junior year, by obtaining a scholarship in physics and working as a laboratory assistant. This high school scholarship was also awarded to another student by mistake, so the money had to be halved and Edwin had to supply the rest. At his high school graduation in 1906, the principal said: "Edwin Hubble, I have watched you for four years and I have never seen you study for ten minutes." He paused, leaving young Edwin on tenterhooks a moment longer, before continuing: "Here is a scholarship for the University of Chicago." A promising studentĮdwin Hubble was born in Missouri in 1889, the son of an insurance executive, and moved to Chicago nine years later. When scientists decided to name the Space Telescope after the founder of modern cosmology the choice could not have been more appropriate. ![]() A man who eventually broke the promise made to his father and followed the path dictated by his passion.Īs a result of Hubble's work, our perception of mankind's place in the Universe has changed forever: humans have once again been set aside from the centre of the Universe. This sentence, written by Edwin Hubble recalling his youth, tells us a lot about the man. "I knew that even if I were second or third rate, it was astronomy that mattered." Edwin Powell Hubble - The man who discovered the cosmos
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