Edwin Hubble

Edwin Powell Hubble (November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953) was an American astronomer, noted for his discovery of galaxies beyond the Milky Way and the cosmic red shift. Edwin Hubble was one of the first to argue that the red shift of distant galaxies is due to the Doppler effect induced by the expansion of the universe. He was one of the leading astronomers of modern times and laid down the foundation upon which physical cosmology now rests.

Footnotes

• {{fnb|1}} For the record, these were discus, hammer throw, pole vault, standing and running high jump, shot put, mile-relay. The third-placing was for broad jump.
• {{fnb|2}} This had actually been observed by Vesto Slipher in the 1910s, but the world was largely unaware.

:The world is also largely unaware that Hubble never believed that the expanding universe model was the correct one:

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::"? if redshift are not primarily due to velocity shift ? the velocity-distance relation is linear, the distribution of the nebula is uniform, there is no evidence of expansion, no trace of curvature, no restriction of the time scale ? and we find ourselves in the presence of one of the principle of nature that is still unknown to us today ? whereas, if redshifts are velocity shifts which measure the rate of expansion, the expanding models are definitely inconsistent with the observations that have been made ? expanding models are a forced interpretation of the observational results" (E. Hubble, Ap. J., 84, 517, 1936.)

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::" ? the observations as they stand lead to the anomaly of a closed universe, curiously small and dense, and, it may be added, suspiciously young. On the other hand, if redshifts are not Doppler effects, these anomalies disappear and the region observed appears as a small, homogeneous, but insignificant portion of a universe extended indefinitely both in space and time." (Royal Astronomical Society Monthly Notices, 17, 506, 1937).

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• {{fnb|3}} PBS Cosmological Constant.