![]() It opened up the questions of our origin because later, of course, a few years later, Hubble came up with the observational evidence that the universe was expanding. I mean, from something being what we think it is to going to trillions of times the size, it leads to so many open questions, many of which are still open in the cosmology community, right?īartuziak: Exactly. Siegel: It's amazing to think back on how this moment 100 years ago changed everything and expanded our understanding, but also our curiosity about the universe. So instead of just stars and planets, we now had a far vaster, trillions of times bigger than previously thought. Hubble founded the field of modern cosmology. It expanded the field of astronomy tremendously. It's as if we had been living on one square yard of dirt on the earth and suddenly realizing, Oh my God, there are mountains and rivers and lakes and oceans and continents. It was a small little community, and Hubble expanded that terrifically. Before this, astronomy was relegated to studying the stars in the Milky Way, the planets. So, Marcia, what impact did that discovery have on the world of astronomy going forward?īartuziak: Terrifically. And that was the moment that we knew that the universe was far bigger, far more complex than they had ever imagined before.Īlston: Oh, the day we found the universe, as you've titled the book so fittingly. What Hubble did was he had a direct measuring tape out to that star, and he was able to determine that it was more than a million light years away, far beyond the borders of the Milky Way. There was speculation that there were other galaxies in the universe, but it was all circumstantial evidence. And he discovered that one was a variable star. And then he took those photographs back to his office, and he compared them with other photographs of Andromeda that had been taken over the years. He had been scanning the sky for years, so he was very familiar. ![]() He then maneuvered the telescope just a fraction of a degree to photograph M31, the famous Andromeda Nebula, the target of choice in the island universe debate.' And that night he saw a star that he hadn't seen before in the Nebula. As the giant scope swung around, there was a whine, a series of loud clicks, and then a final clang as the instrument was secured into place. The scene was poor, but it was good enough, just barely, to stalk some celestial quarry that autumn evening. Tell us about that day.īartuziak: I will read from the book: 'On that moment, Oct. You are the author of a book that is all about the story of what exactly happened 100 years ago. Siegel: So you are working to bring that to the foreground. It's always remained a little in the background, and it's always been a mystery to me. And it's always surprised me that it's not as well-known as, say, Darwin discovering evolution or Galileo discovering the moons of Jupiter. But Marcia, you were telling us before we came on air here that it's not as big as one might think for some folks in astronomy community.īartuziak: This is the 100th anniversary of the moment where we are discovering the modern universe. ![]() It's so nice to be here.Īlston: So this is a monumental anniversary here. ![]() Joining us to talk about this is Marcia Bartuziak, an author, journalist and professor of practice emeritus at MIT who's been covering the fields of astronomy and physics for decades. It marked a turning point in the space world that led to a major discovery: That other galaxies exist. astronomer Edwin Hubble, who the Hubble Space Telescope is named after, took a photo of the first star in the Andromeda Galaxy. Jeremy Siegel: Today is the 100th anniversary of when the U.S. Although it may seem enormous, Planet Earth is just a small part of the Milky Way galaxy, which is just one of the billions of galaxies in the entire universe. Paris Alston: This is GBH's Morning Edition.
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