home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- The expansion of the universe was confirmed in 1929 when Edwin Hubble observed that distant objects are receding
- from us. This proved the model proposed by Alexander Friedmann already in 1922, according to which the universe
- either expands or contracts but is not of a constant size.
-
- In Hubble's time it had long been the object of heated debate whether the Milky Way plus a few distant stars composed
- the entire universe. Hubble's observations proved that the Milky Way was just one among many galaxies just like
- Andromeda, pictured here. Later in 1940 the German-born astronomer and Hubble's co-worker Walter Baade (1893 -
- 1960) could prove that the Andromeda galaxy is twice as far as had been thought. Distances to galaxies increased and
- became more accurate.
-