Edwin Hubble Biography

Astronomer (1889–1953)
Astronomer Edwin Hubble revolutionized the field of astrophysics. His research helped prove that the universe is expanding, and he created a classification system for galaxies that has been used for several decades.


Edwin Hubble was born on November 20, 1889. He graduated from the University of Chicago and served in WWI before settling down to lead research in the field of astrophysics at Mount Wilson Observatory in California. Hubble's revolutionary work includes finding a constant relationship between galaxies' redshift and distance, which helped to eventually prove that the universe is expanding. Additionally, a classification system that he created for galaxies has been used by other researchers for decades, now known as the Hubble sequence.

Early Life



Hubble received a scholarship to attend the University of Chicago in 1906. While there, he worked as a lab assistant under Robert Millikan, who later won a Nobel Prize for his work in the field of physics. After graduating in 1910, Hubble left Chicago and enrolled at the University of Oxford, where he studied law philosophy. He gradudated from the school three years later, obtaining a bachelor's degree in jurisprudence. Around the same time, Hubble's father, John Hubble, died.

Acclaimed Career

After a short stint teaching in Indiana, Hubble returned to the University of Chicago to study astronomy. Not long after, he was recruited by California's Mount Wilson Observatory to help complete the construction of its Hooker telescope. Before beginning the new position—which he excitedly accepted—Hubble completed a doctorate in astronomy, enlisted in the U.S. Army and served a tour of duty in World War I.

While working at Mount Wilson, Hubble proved that other galaxies existed outside of the Milky Way, where Earth is located, by taking photos through the observatory's Hooker telescope and comparing the varying degrees of luminosity among Cepheid variable stars. There had been no clear idea of the Milky Way's size at the time, and through his research, Hubble was able to estimate that the Andromeda Nebula (thought of simply as a spiral at the time) was nearly 900,000 light years away from the Milky Way, thus it had to be its own galaxy. The Andromeda Nebula was later proven to be much farther away, at nearly 2.48 million light years (through further analyses of the spacial indications of stars' light). The Andromeda Nebula was later renamed the Andromeda Galaxy.

In the early mid-1920s, Hubble began conducting new research, along with fellow astronomer Milton Humason, on the galaxies' spectral shifts and unique distances, particularly looking at their relationship with the earth. He and Humason then published their research in 1929, theorizing that redshifts in galaxies' light emissions—which shows that galaxies are moving away from each other—move at a linear rate to the distance between them. In other words, Hubble was stating that a galaxy's redshift is twice the size as another's when it's twice as far from another galaxy. The two men's research was widely well-received.


Death and Legacy




Hubble remains one of the world's most famous astronomers. In addition to receiving the Medal of Merit (1946), he is the recipient of the Franklin Medal (in physics), Legion of Merit, Bruce Medal and Gold Medal (from the Royal Astronomical Society). As a tribute to Hubble's groundbreaking work in astrophysics, NASA named its Hubble Space Telescope after Edwin Hubble. Countless university facilities, a planetarium, an asteroid and a portion of a highway in Missouri also share his name.

Personal Life

Hubble married Grace Burke on February 26, 1924. The couple never had children.

Fact Check
