Georges Lemaître, the Belgian priest who discovered the universe is expanding
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Re: Georges Lemaître, the Belgian priest who discovered the universe is expanding
#2Technically it was Friedmann who first theorised that the universe could be expanding, but Lemaître came to the same conclusion independently later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Friedmann#Professors...
Re: Georges Lemaître, the Belgian priest who discovered the universe is expanding
#3Interestingly the discovery was "abused" for political purposes:
In 1951, Pope Pius XII claimed that Lemaître's theory provided a scientific validation for Catholicism – a claim that Lemaître resented, as he stated his theory was neutral.
Re: Georges Lemaître, the Belgian priest who discovered the universe is expanding
#4Technically it was Friedmann who first theorised that the universe could be expanding, but Lemaître came to the same conclusion independently later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Friedmann#Professors...
For the full story:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedmann%E2%80%93Lema%C3%AEtr...
Re: Georges Lemaître, the Belgian priest who discovered the universe is expanding
#5Technically it was Friedmann who first theorised that the universe could be expanding, but Lemaître came to the same conclusion independently later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Friedmann#Professors...
Lemaître discovered Hubble's law, though ;)
Re: Georges Lemaître, the Belgian priest who discovered the universe is expanding
#6note that the 'civil' in 'civil engineering' uses the 'not military' meaning of the word. It has nothing to do with
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_engineering
Re: Georges Lemaître, the Belgian priest who discovered the universe is expanding
#7Technically it was Friedmann who first theorised that the universe could be expanding, but Lemaître came to the same conclusion independently later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Friedmann#Professors...
True, but Lemaître actually calculated the Hubble constant[1], partly using data published by Hubble (but before him).
Re: Georges Lemaître, the Belgian priest who discovered the universe is expanding
#8Technically it was Friedmann who first theorised that the universe could be expanding, but Lemaître came to the same conclusion independently later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Friedmann#Professors...
For the full story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedmann%E2%80%93Lema%C3%AEtr...
A different part of the full story:
Re: Georges Lemaître, the Belgian priest who discovered the universe is expanding
#9Interestingly the discovery was "abused" for political purposes: In 1951, Pope Pius XII claimed that Lemaître's theory provided a scientific validation for Catholicism – a claim that Lemaître resented, as he stated his theory was neutral.
It was also disputed on the other side for the same reasons, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hoyle :
> He found the idea that the universe had a beginning to be pseudoscience, resembling arguments for a creator, "for it's an irrational process, and can't be described in scientific terms"
Pope Pius XII at least had the excuse of trying to speak about a field in which he wasn't an expert.
Re: Georges Lemaître, the Belgian priest who discovered the universe is expanding
#102011 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae".
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/20...