Edwin Hubble
1889-1953
Astronomy
Known for his work in astronomy
Edwin Hubble's arrival at Mount Wilson, California in 1919 agreed harshly with the completion of the 100-inch Hooker Telescope, then the world's largest telescope. At that time, the existing view of the cosmos was that the universe needed the Milky Way Galaxy. Using the Hooker Telescope at Mt. Wilson, Hubble founded Cepheid variables in several spiral nebulae, also the Andromeda Nebula and Triangulum. His observations, made in 1922–1923, proved decision that these nebulae were way too far to be part of the Milky Way and were, in fact, galaxies outside our own. This idea had been opposed by many in the astronomy establishment of the time, in particular by the 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, and then more formally shown in the form of a paper at the January 1, 1925 meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
By Julien Lassance