A Wrong Redressed - Hubble Law Renamed

[saac]

The IAU has voted to rename Hubble's Law  as the Hubble and Lemaitre Law.  Georges Lemaitre was the author of what would become known as The Big Bang Theory. Unlike Hubble , Lemaitre was far from being a self publicist and in early presentation of his theory he was met with indifference and ridicule - in fact the name Big Bang was a pejorative term coined by Fred Hoy who was one of many cosmologists who favoured the steady state model.  So at last Georges Lemaitre is recognised more publicly by this renaming.  Lemaitre is a bit of a hero of mine so when I was teaching today (expansion of the universe) I had a big smile on my face when I introduced the Hubble-Lemaitre law to the class.  

Now we just need to get Henrietta Swan Leavitt recognised more widely; her work on Cepheid variables (relationship between luminosity and period) was an essential precursor for Hubble's work .

IAU Rename Hubble Law

Henrietta Swan Leavitt

Jim 

[JeremyS]

On 08/11/2019 at 18:06, saac said:

Unlike Hubble , Lemaitre was far from being a self publicist

Another case where Hubble took undue credit is in the classification of galaxies. In 1925 Hubble published his classification around normal spirals and barred spirals that later became known as the Hubble tuning fork diagramme. Birmingham based astronomer J.H. Reynolds had published a similar classification in 1920. It is clear from Hubble’s personal correspondence in 1923 that he was aware of Reynold’s paper – in fact both men met in Oxford. But Hubble gave no credit or citation to Reynold’s work.

[Tiki]

On ‎08‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 18:06, saac said:

 

Now we just need to get Henrietta Swan Leavitt recognised more widely; her work on Cepheid variables (relationship between luminosity and period) was an essential precursor for Hubble's work .

 

Jim 

Well said.