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]
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 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.[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.
Early life and education
Edwin Hubble was born in 1889 to Virginia Lee Hubble (née James) (1864–1934)[14] and John
Powell Hubble, an insurance executive, in Marshfield, Missouri, and moved to Wheaton, Illinois,
in 1900.[15] In his younger days, he was noted more for his athletic prowess than his intellectual
abilities, although he did earn good grades in every subject except spelling. Edwin was a gifted
athlete, playing baseball, football, and running track in both high school and college. He won seven
first places and a third place in a single high school track and field meet in 1906, and he played a
variety of positions on the basketball court, from center to shooting guard. Hubble led the University
of Chicago's basketball team to their first Big Ten Conference title in 1907.[16]
Undergraduate studies
Hubble's studies at the University of Chicago were concentrated on mathematics, astronomy and
philosophy, which resulted in a Bachelor of Science degree by 1910. For a year he was also a
student laboratory assistant for the physicist Robert Millikan, a future Nobel Prize winner.[17] Hubble
also became a member of the Kappa Sigma
Edwin Hubble
fraternity. A Rhodes Scholar, he spent three years
at The Queen's College, Oxford studying
jurisprudence instead of science (as a promise to
his dying father),[18] and later added studies in
literature and Spanish,[18] eventually earning his
master's degree.[19]
In 1909, Hubble's father moved his family from
Chicago to Shelbyville, Kentucky, so that the
family could live in a small town, ultimately
settling in nearby Louisville. His father died in the
winter of 1913, while Edwin was still in England.
In the following summer, Edwin returned home to Portrait by Johan Hagemeyer, 1931
care for his mother, two sisters, and younger
Born Edwin Powell Hubble
brother, along with his brother William. The family
November 20, 1889
moved once more to Everett Avenue, in
Marshfield, Missouri,
Louisville's Highlands neighborhood, to U.S.
[20]
accommodate Edwin and William.
Died September 28, 1953
Hubble was a dutiful son, who despite his intense (aged 63)
interest in astronomy since boyhood, acquiesced San Marino,
to his father's request to study law, first at the California, U.S.
University of Chicago and later at Oxford. In this
Alma mater University of Chicago
time, he also took some math and science (BS, PhD)
courses. After the death of his father in 1913, The Queen's College,
Edwin returned to the Midwest from Oxford but Oxford (MA)
did not have the motivation to practice law.
Known for Hubble sequence
Instead, he proceeded to teach Spanish, physics
Hubble's law
and mathematics at New Albany High School in Hubble luminosity
New Albany, Indiana, where he also coached the law
boys' basketball team. After a year of high-school Hubble–Reynolds
teaching, he entered graduate school with the law
help of his former professor from the University
Spouse Grace Burke (m. 1924)
of Chicago to study astronomy at the university's
Yerkes Observatory, where he received his Ph.D. Awards See list [show]
in 1921. His dissertation was titled "Photographic
Scientific career
Investigations of Faint Nebulae".[21] At Yerkes, he Fields Astronomy
had access to its 40-inch refractor built in 1897,
Institutions University of Chicago
as well as an innovative 26-inch (61 cm)
Mount Wilson
reflector.[17]
Observatory
Carnegie Institution
for Science
Doctoral studies
University of
Cambridge
Military career
Branch United States Army
Years of service 1918
Hubble's identity card in the American Rank Major
Expeditionary Forces.
Unit 86th Division, 2nd
After the United States declared war on Germany Battalion, 343rd
in 1917 during World War I, Hubble rushed to Infantry Regiment
complete his Ph.D. dissertation so he could join
Battles / wars World War I
the military. Hubble volunteered for the United
States Army and was assigned to the newly Signature
created 86th Division, where he served in the 2nd
Battalion, 343rd Infantry Regiment. He rose to the
rank of major,[22] and was found fit for overseas
duty on July 9, 1918; the 86th Division moved overseas, but never saw combat as it was broken up
and its personnel used as replacements in other units. After the end of World War I, Hubble spent a
year at University of Cambridge, where he renewed his studies of astronomy.[23]
Career
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 United States Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland
during World War II as the Chief of the External Ballistics Branch of the Ballistic 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]
Discoveries
Universe goes beyond the Milky Way galaxy
The 100-inch (2.5 m) Hooker
telescope at Mount Wilson
Observatory that Hubble used to
measure galaxy distances and a
value for the rate of expansion of
the universe.
Edwin Hubble's arrival at Mount Wilson Observatory, California, in 1919 coincided roughly with the
completion of the 100-inch (2.5 m) Hooker Telescope, then the world's largest. At that time, the
prevailing view of the cosmos was that the universe consisted entirely of the Milky Way galaxy.
Using the Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson, Hubble identified Cepheid variables, a standard
candle discovered by Henrietta Swan Leavitt.[7] Comparing their apparent luminosity to their intrinsic
luminosity gives their distance from Earth.[25][26] Hubble found Cepheids in several nebulae,
including the Andromeda Nebula and Triangulum Nebula. His observations, made in 1924, proved
conclusively that these nebulae were much too distant to be part of the Milky Way and were, in fact,
entire galaxies outside our own; thus today they are no longer considered nebulae.
This was first hypothesized as early as 1755 when Immanuel Kant's General History of Nature and
Theory of the Heavens appeared. Hubble's hypothesis was opposed by many in the astronomy
establishment of the time, in particular by Harvard University–based Harlow Shapley. Despite the
opposition, Hubble, then a thirty-five-year-old scientist, had his findings first published in The New
York Times on November 23, 1924,[27] then presented them to other astronomers at the January 1,
1925, meeting of the American Astronomical Society.[28] Hubble's results for Andromeda were not
formally published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal until 1929.[29]
Hubble's classification scheme
Hubble's findings fundamentally changed the scientific view of the universe. Supporters state that
Hubble's discovery of nebulae outside of our galaxy helped pave the way for future astronomers.[30]
Although some of his more renowned colleagues simply scoffed at his results, Hubble ended up
publishing his findings on nebulae. This published work earned him an award titled the American
Association Prize and five hundred dollars from Burton E. Livingston of the Committee on
Awards.[16]
Hubble also devised the most commonly used system for classifying galaxies, grouping them
according to their appearance in photographic images. He arranged the different groups of galaxies
in what became known as the Hubble sequence.[31]
Redshift increases with distance
Hubble went on to estimate the distances to 24 extra-galactic nebulae, using a variety of methods.
In 1929 Hubble examined the relationship between these distances and their radial velocities as
determined from their redshifts. All of his estimated distances are now known to be too small, by up
to a factor of about 7. This was due to factors such as the fact that there are two kinds of Cepheid
variables or confusing bright gas clouds with bright stars.[32] However, his distances were more or
less proportional to the true distances, and combining his distances with measurements of the
redshifts of the galaxies by Vesto Slipher, and by his assistant Milton L. Humason, he found a
roughly linear relationship between the distances of the galaxies and their radial velocities
(corrected for solar motion),[11] a discovery that later became known as Hubble's law.
This meant that the greater the distance between any two galaxies, the greater their relative speed
of separation. If interpreted that way, Hubble's measurements on 46 galaxies lead to a value for the
Hubble constant of 500 km/s/Mpc, which is much higher than the currently accepted values of
74 km/s/Mpc[33][34] (cosmic distance ladder method) or 68 km/s/Mpc[35][36] (CMB method) due to
errors in their distance calibrations.
Yet the reason for the redshift remained unclear. Georges Lemaître predicted on theoretical grounds
based on Einstein's equations for general relativity the redshift-distance relation, and published
observational support for it, two years before the discovery of Hubble's law.[37] Although he used the
term "velocities" in his paper (and "apparent radial velocities" in the introduction), he later expressed
doubt about interpreting these as real velocities. In 1931 he wrote a letter to the Dutch cosmologist
Willem de Sitter expressing his opinion on the theoretical interpretation of the redshift-distance
relation:[32]
Mr. Humason and I are both deeply sensible of your gracious appreciation of the
papers on velocities and distances of nebulae. We use the term 'apparent' velocities
to emphasize the empirical features of the correlation. The interpretation, we feel,
should be left to you and the very few others who are competent to discuss the
matter with authority.
Today, the "apparent velocities" in question are usually thought of as an increase in proper distance
that occurs due to the expansion of the universe. Light traveling through an expanding metric will
experience a Hubble-type redshift, a mechanism somewhat different from the Doppler effect,
although the two mechanisms become equivalent descriptions related by a coordinate
transformation for nearby galaxies.
In the 1930s, Hubble was involved in determining the distribution of galaxies and spatial curvature.
These data seemed to indicate that the universe was flat and homogeneous, but there was a
deviation from flatness at large redshifts. According to Allan Sandage,
Hubble believed that his count data gave a more reasonable result concerning
spatial curvature if the redshift correction was made assuming no recession. To the
very end of his writings, he maintained this position, favouring (or at the very least
keeping open) the model where no true expansion exists, and therefore that the
redshift "represents a hitherto unrecognized principle of nature."[38]
There were methodological problems with Hubble's survey technique that showed a deviation from
flatness at large redshifts. In particular, the technique did not account for changes in luminosity of
galaxies due to galaxy evolution. Earlier, in 1917, Albert Einstein had found that his newly developed
theory of general relativity indicated that the universe must be either expanding or contracting.
Unable to believe what his own equations were telling him, Einstein introduced a cosmological
constant (a "fudge factor") to the equations to avoid this "problem". When Einstein learned of
Hubble's redshifts, he immediately realized that the expansion predicted by general relativity must
be real, and in later life, he said that changing his equations was "the biggest blunder of [his] life".[39]
In fact, Einstein apparently once visited Hubble and tried to convince him that the universe was
expanding.
Hubble also discovered the asteroid 1373 Cincinnati on August 30, 1935. In 1936 he wrote The
Observational Approach to Cosmology and The Realm of the Nebulae which explained his
approaches to extra-galactic astronomy and his view of the subject's history.
In December 1941, Hubble reported to the American Association for the Advancement of Science
that results from a six-year survey with the Mt. Wilson telescope did not support the expanding
universe theory. According to a Los Angeles Times article reporting on Hubble's remarks, "The
nebulae could not be uniformly distributed, as the telescope shows they are, and still fit the
explosion idea. Explanations which try to get around what the great telescope sees, he said, fail to
stand up. The explosion, for example, would have had to start long after the earth was created, and
possibly even after the first life appeared here."[40][41] (Hubble's estimate of what we now call the
Hubble constant would put the Big Bang only 2 billion years ago.)
Personal life
Hubble married Grace Lillian (Burke) Leib (1889–1980), daughter of John Patrick and Luella
(Kepford) Burke, on February 26, 1924.
Hubble was raised as a Protestant Christian, but some of his later statements suggest
uncertainty.[42][43][44]
Health issues and death
Hubble had a heart attack in July 1949 while on vacation in Colorado. He was cared for by his wife
and continued on a modified diet and work schedule. He died of cerebral thrombosis (a blood clot in
his brain) on September 28, 1953, in San Marino, California. No funeral was held for him, and his
wife never revealed his burial site.[45][46][47]
Hubble's papers comprising the bulk of his correspondence, photographs, notebooks, observing
logbooks, and other materials, are held by the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. They
were donated by his wife Grace Burke Hubble upon her death in 1980.[48]
Controversies
Accusations concerning Lemaître's priority
In 2011, the journal Nature reported claims that Hubble might have played a role in the redaction of
key parts of the 1931 English translation of Lemaître's 1927 paper, which formulated what was later
called Hubble's law and also gave observational evidence. 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 a letter he found in the
Lemaître archive demonstrated that the redaction had been made by Lemaître himself, who
apparently saw no point in publishing scientific content which had already been reported in 1929 by
Hubble.[37] However, the fact remains that Lemaître published the law[50] in French, two years prior
to Hubble.
Campaign to obtain a Nobel Prize
During Hubble's life the Nobel Prize in Physics did not cover work done in astronomy. Hubble spent
much of the later part of his career attempting to have astronomy considered part of physics,
instead of being a separate science. He did this largely so that astronomers—including himself—
could be recognized by the Nobel 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
Nobel prize is not awarded posthumously.
Honors
Awards
Newcomb Cleveland Prize in 1924;[51]
Bruce Medal in 1938;[52]
Franklin Medal in 1939;[53]
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1940;[54]
Legion of Merit for outstanding contribution to ballistics research in 1946.[55]
Honors
Elected member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1927.[56]
Elected member of the American Philosophical Society in 1929.[57]
Namesakes
Asteroid 2069 Hubble;
The crater Hubble on the Moon;
Orbiting Hubble Space Telescope;
Edwin P. Hubble Planetarium, located in the Edward R. Murrow High School, Brooklyn, New
York;[58]
Edwin Hubble Highway, the stretch of Interstate 44 passing through his birthplace of Marshfield,
Missouri;[59]
Hubble Middle School, a public school in Wheaton, Illinois, where he lived from 11 years old and
up.[60]
Stamp
On March 6, 2008, the United States Postal Service released a 41-cent stamp honoring Hubble on a
sheet titled "American Scientists" designed by artist Victor Stabin.[46] His citation reads:[61]
Often called a "pioneer of the distant stars", astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889–1953)
played a pivotal role in deciphering the vast and complex nature of the universe.
His meticulous studies of spiral nebulae proved the existence of galaxies other than
our own Milky Way. Had he not died suddenly in 1953, Hubble would have won that
year's Nobel Prize in Physics.
(The assertion that he would have won the Nobel Prize in 1953 is likely false, although he was
nominated for the prize that year.[62])
The other scientists on the "American Scientists" sheet include Gerty Cori, biochemist; Linus
Pauling, chemist, and John Bardeen, physicist.
Other notable appearances
1934 Delivered the Halley Lecture[63] at University of Oxford
Hall of Famous Missourians 2003[64]
2008 "American Scientists" US stamp series, $0.41[65]
2017 Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame[66]
In popular culture
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]
See also
Astronomy
Distance measures
Cosmic distance ladder
K correction
