Edwin Powell Hubble: Astronomer and Namesake of the Orbiting Telescope

He has been likened to English physicist Isaac Newton and Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. The most powerful telescope in existence is named after him. And before his time, humanity lacked a credible understanding of outer space beyond the Milky Way, or that the universe was expanding.

Today is the birthday of Edwin Powell Hubble, an extraordinary astronomer for whom the orbiting telescope is named.

Born on November 20, 1889, Edwin Hubble didn't always travel a path that would make him arguably the greatest astronomer in American history and the creator of concepts known as Hubble's Law and Hubble's Constant. Boredom led this talented thinker to give up a high-school teaching position in Indiana and the chance for a legal career in Kentucky to become an astronomer. Thankfully for astronomy, he chose his ultimate path wisely.

Early Life – Well Rounded Excellence

Edwin Powell Hubble was a recognizable talent even when he was in high school. An athletic star, the 6'2" amateur heavyweight boxer graduated at the age of 16 - two full years early. Hubble's academic excellence landed him a scholarship at the University of Chicago, where he studied mathematics, physics, chemistry, and astronomy. He also tutored students during the summer to help pay for college expenses.

For his academic achievements, Edwin Hubble was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and studied law and Spanish at the University of Oxford. The former boxer also excelled at several events in track and field before moving back the United States, where he taught high school in New Albany, Indiana and passed the bar in Kentucky. Soon, however, he became bored and enrolled in the doctoral program in astronomy at his alma mater.

Astronomer Interrupted

Edwin Hubble's interest in astronomy is believed to have been influenced by a lecture that astronomer Vesto M. Slipher gave at Northwestern University. Slipher's early work with nebulae laid some of the ground work for Hubble's eventual discoveries. Hubble's own work was so impressive at the University of Chicago's Yerkes Observatory that when he met its founder, George Ellery Hale, then director of the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California, Hale offered Hubble a position when the latter finished his doctorate.

This opportunity was put on hold, however, because of America's entry into World War I. Edwin Hubble joined the Army in 1916 and served for three years, achieving the rank of major (an achievement that always made him proud). He didn't start work in Pasadena until 1929. There, he used the new 25-m Hooker telescope, the largest in the world at the time, to study spiral-shaped nebulae.

Contributions to Astronomy

Edwin Hubble's work measured the relative brightness of stars in the Milky Way's nearest neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy (then known as the Andromeda Nebulae). He determined that the stars in this nebula were Cepheid stars and used their periodic changes in brightness to determine their distance from Earth.

Hubble believed that the Andromeda Nebulae was about one million light years from Earth. Although current estimates place Andromeda closer to two million light years away, Hubble still deserves credit for proving the existence of other galaxies. Even at one million light years from Earth, Andromeda was too far away to be part of the Milky Way.

Hubble's other major discoveries are more controversial. While working with colleague Milton Humason, Hubble combed through astronomer Vesto Slipher's work. Now able to approximate a star's distance from Earth, Hubble could tell what direction that star was moving in compared to Earth. Through observation, Hubble also found that the universe was expanding in a concrete way. He suggested a specific relationship between a galaxy's velocity and its distance from Earth. Today, this is known as Hubble's Law.

Hubble also proposed that the expansion of the universe was uniform. According to Hubble's Constant (which is not a certainty), it is possible to calculate the exact age of the universe. This work has come under fire as part of the Big Bang Theory, but is generally agreed-upon within the modern scientific community.

Later Career

Later, Edwin Hubble became director of Mount Wilson Observatory and served as a ballistics specialist for the U.S. military during World War II, receiving the Medal of Merit for his work. Hubble also developed a system for classifying galaxies. While preparing for a four-day observation at Mount Wilson, Hubble suffered a stroke. He died on September 28, 1953 at the age of 63. During the 1970s, NASA acquired funding for the most powerful space telescope in existence, and fittingly named it after Edwin Powell Hubble.

For Further Current Events Reading:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/space/01/05/hubble.new.galaxies/index.html

Resources:

"Edwin Powell Hubble." Earth Sciences for Students. 4 vols. Online. Macmillan Reference USA, 2008.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

"Edwin Hubble." World of Earth Science. Online. Thomson Gale, 2006.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Hubble