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Edwin Hubble
Times obituary
THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE
Dr. Edwin Powell Hubble, who died suddenly on Monday of a heart attack at the age of 63 in San Marino, California, was generally recognized as one of the foremost astronomers in the world in recent times.
His work on the nebulae, published in book form in 1937, the result of long and patient study and observation over a period of 10 years, was probably the most notable work in astronomy of his time. By means of many photographs and accounts of careful watching, he showed conclusively that these were external stellar systems. His book was a remarkable contribution to the knowledge of a subject that had been little known before. When he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1940, it was said that Dr. Hubble's work was outstanding for the power and originality of his method, his observational skill, the objective character of his deductions, and the general brilliance of his results After that research he went on with the aid of the 200in telescope at Mount Palomar to make yet further outstanding discoveries which led to the theory that the universe is expanding. His work and the discoveries he made became widely known through various lectures he delivered both here and in the United States, which were prominently reported at length in the press.
Born at Marshfield, Missouri, on November 20, 1889, he was educated at the University of Chicago where he graduated in science in 1910. He was then awarded a Rhodes scholarship and went into residence at Queen's College, Oxford. It was then his intention to take up the profession of law and he read jurisprudence, taking a first class in 1913. In the same year he returned to the United States and was called to the Kentucky Bar, but he never practised, so he was called to the University of Chicago to undertake research work at its observatory. That finally decided him to seek a career in astronomy and he continued to work there until the United States entered the war in 1917. He at once volunteered for service overseas and went for training to the first officers' training camp at Fort Sheridan in Illinois. He soon rose to command a battery in the National Army but he did not get to France till the last month of the war and he then had to wait for another year for his return. He was then appointed to Mount Wilson Observatory and his work there attracted such wide attention in all parts of the world that he was soon provided with better and better equipment to continue his work.
He was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, the American Astronomical Society, the American Philosophical Society, and many learned societies. He was awarded many medals for his work and was called on to deliver many lectures, such as the Silliman Course at Yale and the Halley Lecture. But the most notable was his course under the Rhodes Trust, delivered in Oxford in 1936 and subsequently published in book form under the title The Observational Approach to Cosmology. During the 1939-45 War, he was in charge of the American supersonic wind-tunnel laboratory, where his knowledge of ballistics was of great use to the Allied cause. It is, however, as an astronomer that he will chiefly be remembered, and his election as an Honorary Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, in 1948 was a due recognition of his eminence in that science.
THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE
Dr. Edwin Powell Hubble, who died suddenly on Monday of a heart attack at the age of 63 in San Marino, California, was generally recognized as one of the foremost astronomers in the world in recent times.
His work on the nebulae, published in book form in 1937, the result of long and patient study and observation over a period of 10 years, was probably the most notable work in astronomy of his time. By means of many photographs and accounts of careful watching, he showed conclusively that these were external stellar systems. His book was a remarkable contribution to the knowledge of a subject that had been little known before. When he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1940, it was said that Dr. Hubble's work was outstanding for the power and originality of his method, his observational skill, the objective character of his deductions, and the general brilliance of his results After that research he went on with the aid of the 200in telescope at Mount Palomar to make yet further outstanding discoveries which led to the theory that the universe is expanding. His work and the discoveries he made became widely known through various lectures he delivered both here and in the United States, which were prominently reported at length in the press.
Born at Marshfield, Missouri, on November 20, 1889, he was educated at the University of Chicago where he graduated in science in 1910. He was then awarded a Rhodes scholarship and went into residence at Queen's College, Oxford. It was then his intention to take up the profession of law and he read jurisprudence, taking a first class in 1913. In the same year he returned to the United States and was called to the Kentucky Bar, but he never practised, so he was called to the University of Chicago to undertake research work at its observatory. That finally decided him to seek a career in astronomy and he continued to work there until the United States entered the war in 1917. He at once volunteered for service overseas and went for training to the first officers' training camp at Fort Sheridan in Illinois. He soon rose to command a battery in the National Army but he did not get to France till the last month of the war and he then had to wait for another year for his return. He was then appointed to Mount Wilson Observatory and his work there attracted such wide attention in all parts of the world that he was soon provided with better and better equipment to continue his work.
He was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, the American Astronomical Society, the American Philosophical Society, and many learned societies. He was awarded many medals for his work and was called on to deliver many lectures, such as the Silliman Course at Yale and the Halley Lecture. But the most notable was his course under the Rhodes Trust, delivered in Oxford in 1936 and subsequently published in book form under the title The Observational Approach to Cosmology. During the 1939-45 War, he was in charge of the American supersonic wind-tunnel laboratory, where his knowledge of ballistics was of great use to the Allied cause. It is, however, as an astronomer that he will chiefly be remembered, and his election as an Honorary Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, in 1948 was a due recognition of his eminence in that science.
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