Hubble: The Man and His Telescope

Edwin Hubble: Visionary

Astronomer Edwin Hubble looks through the eyepiece of the 100-inch telescope at the Mt. Wilson Observatory in California. Vain, tall, handsome, and brilliant, Hubble synthesized reams of disparate, complex data produced over decades by fellow astronomers and credibly announced, on January 1, 1925, that our galaxy is only one of billions -- an idea long debated, but until Hubble, never proved -- and that, incredibly, the universe is expanding at an inconceivably fast pace.

A Man and His Telescope

Hubble poses inside the workings of the 200-inch telescope at the Mount Palomar observatory, California, 1950. His proof that our universe is expanding at mind-boggling speed remains one of the most revolutionary insights in the history of astrophysics and astronomy, coloring to this day how we see our place in the cosmos.