Edwin
Hubble was born November 30,
1889 in Marshfield, Missouri. He graduated from high school in 1906
and was awarded a partial scholarship to the University of Chicago.
In 1910, he received his B.S. degree and a Rhodes Scholarship, under
which he studied Roman and English law. He returned to the United
States in 1913. passed the bar exam and practiced law in Louiseville,
Kentucky. However, his heart was in the sky and after a year, in
1914, he returned to the University of Chicago to study astronomy.
While finishing his doctoral degree, he was invited to join the staff of the Mount Wilson Observatory. It was an invitation he had to declined because World War I had started and he had enlisted in the infantry.
In 1919, he returned and immediately went to the Mount Wilson Observatory. From this lonely mountain top in California, he made discoveries that brought a better understanding of the universe to the world. In 1923, he proved that the universe extended beyond the egde of the Milky Way. In 1925, he created a scheme for classifying galaxies. using the galactic period-luminosity relationship, he was able to determine distances. In 1929, he proved the universe is expanding. In 1936, he published The Realm of the Nebulae which became a popular success. Hubble continued to research at Mount Wilson and Palomar until his death on September 28, 1953 of a cerebral thrombosis.
Designed by: Sheryl Martin.
Christianson, G. E. Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebluae. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1995.
Mayall, N.U. "Edwin Hubble."
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/diamond_jubilee/d_1996/hubble_nas.html.
Sandage, A. "Edwin Hubble 1889-1953." J. Roy. Astoc. Soc Canada
'83, 1989
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/diamond_jubilee/d_1996/sandage_hubble.html