Edwin Hubble American Astronomer

Edwin Hubble was born in Marshfield, Missouri. He was a Rhodes scholar, earned a law degree and worked as a lawyer for one year. Hubble gave up law, deciding that “he’d rather be a bad astronomer than a good lawyer”. He went on to become one of the outstanding astronomers in history.

Dr. Hubble made some of the most important discoveries in modern astronomy. Most notably, he developed a system to classify galaxies. There are three major types – Elliptical, Spiral and Irregular.

Elliptical Galaxies Elliptical- most common galaxy type, looks like a flat ball, contain very little star matter. Stars are very old. Elliptical- most common galaxy type, looks like a flat ball, contain very little star matter. Stars are very old. Picture of M87 elliptical galaxy Picture taken by Canada-France-Hawaii telescope on top of dormant volcano Mauna Kea, Hawaii Picture of M87 elliptical galaxy Picture taken by Canada-France-Hawaii telescope on top of dormant volcano Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Spiral Galaxies Spiral- shaped like a large flat disc, with bars emerging out, resembling a pin-wheel. We live in a spiral galaxy, the Milky Way This is a picture of another spiral galaxy, “Spiral Galaxy M100” It is so far away, the telescope sees it as it appeared at about the time dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Irregular Galaxies Irregular- rarest galaxy type, includes all galaxies that are not elliptical or spiral. Picture of Large Magellanic Cloud Largest satellite galaxy to our Milky Way This is the site of Supernova 1987A—brightest and closest supernova

Dr. Hubble was the first to determine that there are other galaxies in space beyond the Milky Way. The Hubble Space Telescope was named in his honor after he died. It was launched in 1990 and orbits about 375 miles above the surface of the earth. The HST was designed so that astronauts from the space shuttle can make any needed repairs.

Hubble Telescope Trivia Hubble travels at a speed of 5 miles per second, or 18,000 miles/hour. The telescope completes an orbit every 97 minutes. Traveling at Hubble’s speed, a trip from L.A. to N.Y.C. would take 10 minutes. Click here to see “Powers of 10” images.

This is the Hubble Space Telescope. It’s about the size of a school bus.

Hubble Images

The death of a star.

Saturn

A large pair of gaseous rings surrounding a massive dying star Gaseous ”hula-hoops" A large pair of gaseous rings surrounding a massive dying star (PR94-22 May 19, 1994)

Gaseous Pillars in the Eagle Nebula Star-Birth Clouds - M16 Star-Birth Clouds - M16 Gaseous Pillars in the Eagle Nebula

Gallery of Galaxies Hubble Telescope looks back more than 10 billion years to reveal at least 1,500 galaxies at various stages of development.

Bibliography The Hubble Project. (December 1, 2001) http://hubble.nasa.gov/overview/hubble_bio.php Hubble Site. http://hubblesite.org/ Davidson, M.W. & Florida State University. (1995-2008). Molecular Expression. Accessed on 24, June, 2008 from http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html