Google Doodle is celebrating today the 124th birthday of Georges Lemaître, astronomer and physicist who first proposed the idea of ​​an expanding universe that started with the event we now call the Big Bang.

Lemaître was born on July 17, 1894. During the First World War, he served in the Belgian Army as an artillery officer. Like many veterans, he continued his studies after the war and obtained a doctorate in physics in 1920. Three years later, he began a second doctorate in astronomy, the same year he was ordained a Catholic priest

. In 1927, Lemaître (then ordained priest who held two doctorates and a Belgian war cross with palm trees) was working as a professor at the Catholic University of Louvain when he published an article entitled "A Homogeneous Mass Universe" constant and radius of growth ". accounti For the radial velocity of extragalactic nebulae. "Based on Einstein's theory of general relativity, the article proposed an expanding universe, rather than a stable universe.This was the first time that any one was sketching the idea that light objects in deep space is shifted to the red end of the spectrum because the Doppler effect stretches the wavelength of light from sources that In other words, distant objects in space are moving away, the universe is expanding, and today we know that Is Hubble's law, but it's Lemaître who published the basic idea first.

But Lemaître had not yet described the pattern of the universe that we accept today. On the one hand, he described the expanding universe from a static starting point – not the cataclysmic cosmic explosion of the Big Bang. It was only in 1931, when Lemaître published an article in the newspaper Nature describing the beginning of the universe from "l & # 39; "Primordial Atom" or even more poetically "Cosmic Egg exploding at the moment of creation." Astronomer Fred Hoyle, one of the most respected and virulent critics of the model, gave him later the name we recognize today: Big Bang.

Twenty years later, Lemaître – Catholic priest, teacher and researcher at a Catholic University – was expressed when Pope Pius XII declared that the Big Bang offered scientific evidence of the narrative Christian of cosmology. Lemaitre, though personally devoted, felt that scientific theory neither supported nor contradicted religious belief; for Lemaître the two ways of understanding the universe could coexist but should not be directly combined. In fact, Lemaitre worked with the papal scientific advisor to persuade Pius XII to stop making official statements about cosmology and creation.

Lemaitre lived just long enough to see the discovery of the cosmic background. , the weak electromagnetic radiation left by the first phase of the universe, which provided solid evidence supporting his theory. He died on June 20, 1966.

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Georges Lemaitre was the first to propose a universe in expansion. Google

Google Doodle is celebrating today the 124th birthday of Georges Lemaître, astronomer and physicist first proposed the idea of ​​an expanding universe that began with the event we now call the Big Bang.

Lemaître was born on July 17, 1894. During the First World War, he served in the Belgian army as an artillery officer, continued his studies after the war, obtained a doctorate in physics in 1920 and, three years later, he began to prepare a second doctorate in astronomy, the same year he was ordained a Catholic priest

.In 1927, Lemaître (then ordained priest, holder of two doctorates and a Belgian war cross with palms) was lecturer at the Catholic University of Louvain when he published an article entitled "A homogeneous universe of constant mass and increasing radius". for the radial velocity of extragalactic nebulae. Based on Einstein's theory of general relativity, the article proposed an expanding universe, rather than a stable universe. It was the first time that someone was sketching the idea that light objects in deep space is shifted to the red end of the spectrum because the effect Doppler stretches the wavelength of light from sources that move away from us. In other words, distant objects in the space move away; the universe is expanding. Today, we know this as the Hubble Law, but it is Lemaître who first published the basic idea

But Lemaitre had no not yet describe the model of the universe that we accept today. On the one hand, he described the expanding universe from a static starting point – not the cataclysmic cosmic explosion of the Big Bang. It was only in 1931, when Lemaître published an article in the newspaper Nature describing the beginning of the universe from "l & # 39; "Primordial Atom" or even more poetically "Cosmic Egg exploding at the moment of creation." Astronomer Fred Hoyle, one of the most respected and virulent critics of the model, gave him later the name we recognize today: Big Bang.

Twenty years later, Lemaître – Catholic priest, teacher and researcher at a Catholic University – was expressed when Pope Pius XII declared that the Big Bang offered scientific evidence of the narrative Christian of cosmology. Lemaitre, though personally devoted, felt that scientific theory neither supported nor contradicted religious belief; for Lemaître the two ways of understanding the universe could coexist but should not be directly combined. In fact, Lemaître worked with the papal scientific advisor to persuade Pius XII to stop making official statements about cosmology and creation.

Lemaître lived just long enough to see the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background, the weak electromagnetic radiation left by the first phase of the universe, which provided solid evidence supporting his theory. He died on June 20, 1966.

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