author
Edwin Hubble
1889–1953
A towering figure in 20th-century astronomy, he helped show that the universe extends far beyond the Milky Way. His observations also helped reveal that the universe is expanding, changing how people understood the cosmos forever.
2 Audiobooks
Extra-galactic nebulae
by Edwin Hubble
Photographic investigations of faint nebulae
by Edwin Hubble
About the author
Born in Marshfield, Missouri, in 1889, Edwin Hubble became one of the most influential astronomers of the modern era. Working at Mount Wilson Observatory in California, he used the powerful Hooker telescope to study faint "nebulae" and showed that many of them were actually entire galaxies lying far beyond our own Milky Way.
His work in the 1920s transformed astronomy. Hubble helped classify galaxies by their shapes and became closely associated with the discovery that more distant galaxies tend to show greater redshift, a key piece of evidence that the universe is expanding.
Hubble died in 1953, but his name remains closely tied to humanity's exploration of space. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was named in his honor, reflecting the lasting impact of his discoveries on our picture of the universe.