Page 22 - The Creation Of The Universe

20 THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE

Edwin Hubble discovered that the uni-
verse was expanding. Eventually he
found evidence of the "the Big Bang", a
cataclysmic event whose discovery
forced scientists to abandon the notion
of an infinite and eternal universe.

Lemaitre was the first to recognize
what Friedman's work meant.
Based on these computations, the
Belgian astronomer Lemaitre de-
clared that the universe had a be-
ginning and that it was expanding
as a result of something that had
triggered it. He also stated that the rate of radiation could be used as a mea-
sure of the aftermath of that "something".
The theoretical musings of these two scientists did not attract much at-
tention and probably would have been ignored except for new observa-
tional evidence that rocked the scientific world in 1929. That year the
American astronomer Edwin Hubble, working at the California Mount
Wilson observatory, made one of the most important discoveries in the his-
tory of astronomy. Observing a number of stars through his huge telescope,
he discovered that their light was shifted towards the red end of the spec-
trum and, crucially, that this shift was directly related to the distance of the
stars from Earth. This discovery shook the very basis of the universe mod-
el held until then.
According to the recognized rules of physics, the spectra of light beams
travelling towards the point of observation tend towards violet while the
spectra of light beams moving away from the point of observation tend to-
wards red. (Just like the fading of a train's whistle as it moves away from
the observer) Hubble's observation showed that according to this law, the
heavenly bodies were moving away from us. Before long, Hubble made
another important discovery; The stars weren't just racing away from Earth;