What should we know about Edwin Hubble?

Edwin Hubble was born in 1889 in Marshfield, Missouri. His family moved to Wheaton, Chicago. In 1910 Edwin won the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University. In 1912 Edwin's father died and he moved from Oxford to USA. In 1913-14 Edwin spent a year in his family home, helping his mother and he studied law and taught in high school. In 1914 Edwin joined staff at Yerkes Observatory, and began research into nebulae.

In 1917 USA entered the First World War and it was then when Hubble volunteered to join the Army. In the same year Hubble gained a PhD from the University of Chicago. In 1918 Hubble joined the US Army and he went to Europe, to fight in the war.

In 1919, Edwin joined staff of Mount Wilson Observatory. In 1923 Hubble proved that Universe contains many seperate galaxies. In 1924 he married Grace Burke and in 1925 he worked out a classification scheme for galaxies. In 1929 Edwin descovered the Hubble constant (a mathematical formula) and Hubble's Law: 'the more distant a galaxy is, the faster it is travelling away from Earth'. This shows that Universe is expanding.

In 1930-40 Edwin became very famous, in Europe and in USA. He travelled widely and gave public lectures.

In 1940 he urged the US goverment to help defend Britain in the 2nd World War and USA joined in 1941. Edwin appointed head of ballistics at US Army Proving Ground, Aberdeen,Maryland. In 1945 he returned to Mount Wilson Observatoryand in 1949 he began to work at Mount Palomar. In the same year he had two near-fatal heart-attacks and in 1953 he died at the age of 64.