50 Fun Facts About Edwin Hubble

What did Hubble prove about many objects that had been classified as "nebulae"?

Hubble's 1923–24 distance measurements put the spiral nebulae far outside the Milky Way, proving they were galaxies beyond the Milky Way, a result announced on 1 January 1925.

What does Hubble's 1929 finding that galaxies recede faster with distance imply about the universe?

A recession velocity proportional to distance means the universe is expanding uniformly; the relation, published in 1929 from two dozen galaxies' redshifts, became known as Hubble's law.

Which pulsating stars, whose period-luminosity relation Henrietta Leavitt found, did Hubble use to measure distances?

Cepheid variables pulse with a period tied to their true luminosity, so comparing observed brightness with luminosity yields distance; Hubble found Cepheids in spiral nebulae with the Mount Wilson reflector.

In which Missouri town, home to a model of the space telescope, was Hubble born in 1889?

Hubble was born in Marshfield, Missouri, on 20 November 1889; the Webster County seat displays a quarter-scale replica of the Hubble Space Telescope on its courthouse lawn.

What was the profession of Hubble's father, John Powell Hubble?

John Powell Hubble worked as an insurance executive, a job that moved the family from Missouri to Illinois in 1900; he died in 1913 while Edwin was at Oxford.

What was the only school subject in which the young Hubble did not earn good grades?

Spelling was the one subject that escaped him; otherwise the young Hubble earned good grades while being better known for athletics, playing baseball and football and running track.

For which university did Hubble play on a conference-champion basketball team?

Hubble played for the University of Chicago, whose basketball team won Western Conference (later Big Ten) championships during his years there, 1906 to 1910.

For which future Nobel-winning physicist did Hubble work as a student laboratory assistant?

Robert Millikan, later the 1923 physics laureate for measuring the electron's charge, employed Hubble as a student laboratory assistant during his undergraduate years.

What did Hubble study at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, keeping a promise to his dying father?

Hubble read jurisprudence at Queen's College, Oxford, from 1910 to 1913, honouring his father's wish that he study law, though he never practised.

What did Hubble do for a year at New Albany High School in Indiana after returning from Oxford?

At New Albany High School in 1913–14 Hubble taught Spanish, physics and maths and coached basketball, then left to pursue a doctorate in astronomy.

Where did Hubble earn his 1917 PhD with a dissertation on faint nebulae?

Hubble wrote his dissertation, Photographic Investigations of Faint Nebulae, at Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, whose 40-inch refractor was the largest of its type ever put to regular use.

What rank did Hubble reach in the US Army's 86th Division during the First World War?

Hubble enlisted in 1917 after hurrying through his doctorate and rose to major in the 86th Division, which reached France in 1918 but was broken up for replacements and never fought.

Who offered Hubble a staff position at Mount Wilson Observatory in 1919?

George Ellery Hale, founder and director of Mount Wilson Observatory, hired Hubble in 1919 after his discharge from the army that summer.

Which instrument, then the world's largest of its kind, was newly completed when Hubble arrived at Mount Wilson?

The 100-inch Hooker Telescope on Mount Wilson, completed in 1917 and funded by John D. Hooker, was the world's largest for three decades; Hubble used it for his nebula distances.

Which two nebulae did Hubble's 1924 variable-star observations prove were separate galaxies?

Hubble's variable-star distances put the Andromeda and Triangulum nebulae (M31 and M33) nearly a million light-years away, far beyond any estimate of the Milky Way's size.

Who argued in the 1920 Great Debate that the spiral nebulae lay within the Milky Way?

Harlow Shapley, later director of Harvard College Observatory, held in the 1920 debate with Heber Curtis that the spirals were nearby; Hubble's 1924 letter, he said, 'destroyed my universe'.

In which newspaper were Hubble's findings on the nebulae first published, on November 23, 1924?

The New York Times reported Hubble's discovery on 23 November 1924, weeks before he presented it to the American Astronomical Society on 1 January 1925; the full paper followed in 1929.

What is the astronomer's system for classifying galaxies by their photographic appearance called?

The Hubble sequence, introduced in 1926, sorts galaxies into ellipticals, spirals and barred spirals and is usually drawn as a tuning-fork diagram.

By roughly what factor were Hubble's estimated galaxy distances later found to be too small?

Hubble's distances were too small by up to about 7 times, because he mixed two classes of pulsating variables and took bright gas clouds for stars; relative distances held nonetheless.

Which two astronomers' redshift measurements did Hubble combine with his distances?

Vesto Slipher at Lowell had measured most of the nebular redshifts from 1912 onward, and Milton Humason at Mount Wilson added fainter galaxies; Hubble paired these velocities with his distances.

What value did Hubble's measurements on 46 galaxies give for the Hubble constant?

Hubble's 1929 analysis of 46 galaxies gave a constant near 500 km/s/Mpc, far too high because his distance scale was badly underestimated; later measurements put it near 70.

Which Belgian priest-physicist predicted the redshift-distance law two years before Hubble?

Georges Lemaître derived the velocity–distance relation in a 1927 paper in a Belgian journal; a 2011 study by Mario Livio showed Lemaître himself trimmed the later English translation.

Which word did Hubble attach to the galaxies' velocities in a letter to de Sitter?

Hubble wrote to de Sitter that he used the term 'apparent' velocities to emphasise the empirical features of the correlation, leaving interpretation to those competent to discuss it.

What did Einstein reportedly call the cosmological constant he'd added to keep the universe static?

Einstein reportedly called the constant 'the biggest blunder of my life', a remark recorded by George Gamow; after seeing Hubble's redshift data he abandoned the term.

In which year did Einstein visit Mount Wilson, meet Hubble and say the visit 'changed his mind'?

Einstein spent early 1931 at Caltech and Mount Wilson, where he toured the observatory with Hubble and publicly accepted that the universe was expanding.

Which asteroid did Hubble discover on August 30, 1935?

Hubble's only asteroid find, 1373 Cincinnati, turned up on a Mount Wilson plate on 30 August 1935 and was named for the Cincinnati Observatory.

What was the title of Hubble's 1936 book explaining his approach to extragalactic astronomy?

The Realm of the Nebulae, published by Yale in 1936 from his Silliman lectures, set out Hubble's classification of galaxies and his distance and redshift work.

Which assistant of Hubble's carried on his cosmology programme after his death in 1953?

Allan Sandage, Hubble's last assistant, inherited his observing programme after 1953 and in 1958 revised the expansion rate down to about 75 km/s/Mpc.

What did Hubble surprisingly tell the AAAS in December 1941 that a six-year Mount Wilson survey showed?

His own constant would have made the Big Bang only 2 billion years old, younger than the Earth.

Where did Hubble work as a civilian during the Second World War, heading the External Ballistics Branch?

At Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, Hubble headed the External Ballistics Branch of the Ballistics Research Laboratory from 1942, devising a high-speed clock camera and earning the Legion of Merit in 1946.

Which instrument did Hubble become the first astronomer to use, in January 1949?

The 200-inch Hale Telescope on Palomar Mountain, then the world's largest, saw first light in January 1949 with Hubble at the eyepiece taking its first photograph.

Whom did Hubble marry on February 26, 1924?

Grace Lillian Burke Leib, a widow, married Hubble on 26 February 1924; they lived in San Marino, California, and she outlived him by 27 years, dying in 1980.

Of what did Hubble die in San Marino, California, on September 28, 1953?

Hubble died of cerebral thrombosis, a blood clot in the brain, at home in San Marino on 28 September 1953, four years after a heart attack; no funeral was held.

Which institution in San Marino, California, holds Hubble's correspondence, notebooks and observing logs?

The Huntington Library in San Marino holds the Edwin Hubble Papers, donated by his widow in 1980, including correspondence, notebooks and Mount Wilson observing logs.

Why did Hubble never receive the honour from Stockholm that he campaigned for?

The physics prize did not cover astronomy in his lifetime; Hubble lobbied to change that, and the Nobel committee made astronomical work eligible only after his 1953 death.

Which Royal Astronomical Society honour did Hubble receive in 1940?

The Royal Astronomical Society awarded Hubble its Gold Medal in 1940, following the Bruce Medal (1938) and the Franklin Medal (1939).

What denomination was the 2008 US postage stamp honouring Hubble in the "American Scientists" sheet?

The 2008 American Scientists sheet, designed by Victor Stabin, paired Hubble with Gerty Cori, Linus Pauling and John Bardeen at 41 cents each, then the first-class rate.

What phrase does Hubble's stamp citation use to describe him?

The stamp text opens 'Often called a pioneer of the distant stars' and credits Hubble with deciphering the vast and complex universe; its claim that he would have won the 1953 Nobel Prize is doubtful.

Which Brooklyn institution houses the Edwin P. Hubble Planetarium?

Edward R. Murrow High School in the Midwood section of Brooklyn houses the Edwin P. Hubble Planetarium, used for its astronomy classes.

What is Creation's Birthday, written by Cornell physicist Hasan Padamsee?

Creation's Birthday is a play telling Hubble's life story by Cornell physicist Hasan Padamsee; Hubble's life has also drawn a 2003 induction into the Hall of Famous Missourians.

Which 18th-century philosopher hypothesised as early as 1755 that the nebulae were separate 'island' systems?

Immanuel Kant proposed in his 1755 Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens that the nebulae were distant 'island universes' like the Milky Way.

Which university did Hubble spend a year at after the First World War, renewing his astronomy studies?

After the war Hubble spent time at Cambridge renewing his astronomy before sailing home and joining Mount Wilson in September 1919.

To which Illinois town did Hubble's family move in 1900, where he finished high school?

The Hubbles moved to Wheaton, Illinois, in 1900, and Edwin graduated from Wheaton High School in 1906 before entering university that autumn.

How many first places did Hubble win at a single high-school track meet in 1906?

Hubble won seven first places and a third at one high-school track meet in 1906, and also played baseball, football and basketball.

In 1909 Hubble's father moved the family from Illinois to a small town in which state?

The family moved in 1909 to Shelbyville, Kentucky, and then to nearby Louisville; his father died there in the winter of 1913 while Edwin was at Oxford.

Where was Hubble on vacation when he suffered a heart attack in July 1949?

Hubble suffered the heart attack while on holiday in Colorado in July 1949; nursed by his wife, he kept working on a modified diet and schedule until his death in 1953.

What is unusual about Hubble's final resting place?

His wife never revealed where he was buried, and no funeral was held after his death in San Marino in September 1953.

Which journal reported in 2011 that Hubble may have influenced cuts to a translated 1927 paper?

Nature reported in 2011 claims that Hubble had a hand in trimming the English translation; historians quoted were sceptical, and a letter found later that year showed the author himself made the cuts.

Which honour did Hubble receive in 1924, the earliest of his major awards?

The Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science went to Hubble for the 1924 paper establishing the distance of the spiral nebulae, read at the AAAS meeting on 1 January 1925.

The Edwin Hubble Highway is a stretch of which numbered US highway through his birthplace?

Missouri designated the stretch of Interstate 44 passing Hubble's birthplace the Edwin Hubble Highway; I-44 runs from St. Louis to the Oklahoma line across southwest Missouri.