Object Details
- Artist
- Unidentified Artist
- Sitter
- Edwin Powell Hubble, 20 Nov 1889 - 28 Sep 1953
- Exhibition Label
- Born Marshfield, Missouri
- The famed Hubble Space Telescope takes its name from one of the great astronomers of the twentieth century. Edwin Hubble trained to become a lawyer but chose to pursue a career in astronomy instead. In 1919, he accepted a position at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California, where his groundbreaking study revealed that certain types of nebulae were distinct galaxies beyond the Milky Way—not merely gaseous clouds within it. His subsequent research, in collaboration with astronomer Milton Humason, concluded that these galaxies were “moving away from each other at a rate constant to the distance between them.” This important discovery—known as Hubble’s law—supported the Big Bang theory of an expanding universe.
- In 1949, Hubble launched a project at California’s Palomar Observatory to complete the first comprehensive photographic survey of the northern sky. In this portrait, he looks through the eyepiece of the observatory’s “Big Schmidt” camera telescope.
- Nacido en Marshfield, Misuri
- El famoso telescopio espacial Hubble lleva el nombre de uno de los grandes astrónomos del siglo XX. Edwin Hubble estudió derecho, pero optó por una carrera en astronomía. En 1919 aceptó un puesto
- en el Observatorio del Monte Wilson, California, donde sus estudios pioneros revelaron que ciertos tipos de nebulosas eran otras galaxias separadas de la Vía Láctea, y no meras nubes gaseosas dentro de esta. Su estudio subsiguiente, en colaboración con el astrónomo Milton Humason, concluyó que estas galaxias se “alejan unas de otras a velocidad constante, proporcional a la distancia entre ellas”. Este importante descubrimiento, conocido como la ley de Hubble, afianzó la teoría del universo en expansión: el big bang.
- En 1949, en el Observatorio Palomar de California, Hubble inició el primer estudio fotográfico abarcador del hemisferio celeste norte. En este retrato, Hubble mira por el ocular de la cámara-telescopio “Gran Schmidt” del observatorio.
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquired through the generosity of Laura Peebles and Ellen Fingerman
- 1949
- Object number
- NPG.2016.20
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Photograph
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image: 24.7 × 19.8 cm (9 3/4 × 7 13/16")
- Sheet: 25.4 × 20.6 cm (10 × 8 1/8")
- Place
- United States\California\San Diego\mountains\Palomar Mountain
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Location
- Currently not on view
- National Portrait Gallery
- Topic
- Interior
- Equipment\Optical Devices\Telescope
- Edwin Powell Hubble: Male
- Edwin Powell Hubble: Science and Technology\Scientist
- Edwin Powell Hubble: Science and Technology\Scientist\Astronomer
- Portrait
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.2016.20
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm406a8a61e-b759-4fde-9597-4156f0356fc5
