Edwin Powell Hubble, Biographical Memoirs

Edwin Powell Hubble, born on November 20, 1889, in Marshfield, Missouri, was a prominent astronomer whose work transformed our understanding of the universe. Hubble's parents were Virginia Lee James and John Powell Hubble, with Hubble himself born during a family visit to his grandparents. He had a keen interest in reading, particularly novels by Jules Verne and H. Rider Haggard, such as "King Solomon's Mines."

Hubble's family moved to Wheaton, Illinois, where he corresponded with his grandfather and later earned a high school scholarship to the University of Chicago. However, due to an administrative error, the scholarship was mistakenly awarded to another student, requiring Hubble to pay half of the expenses. He managed his finances by tutoring, working during summers, and later receiving a physics scholarship and a laboratory assistant position with Robert Millikan.

In 1910, Hubble graduated with a B.S. degree from the University of Chicago and received a Rhodes Scholarship to study Roman and English Law at Queens College, Oxford. After returning to the United States in 1913, he earned his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Chicago and joined the staff at the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California.

Although Hubble initially pursued a career in law, he found his true passion in astronomy. He enlisted in the infantry during World War I and later became a major, serving on the front lines in France. Upon his return, Hubble resumed his research at the Mount Wilson Observatory until the summer of 1942, when he joined the war effort at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. For his wartime service, he received the Medal of Merit in 1946.

Hubble continued his groundbreaking research at the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories until his death on September 28, 1953, from a cerebral thrombosis. His work laid the foundation for our current understanding of the universe's size, structure, and properties, shaping the field of cosmology as we know it today.