Georges
Lemaître was an astronomer and professor of physics who is thought to be the
first to have theorised that the universe is expanding.
His
theory was observationally confirmed soon afterwards by Edwin Hubble in what is
now known as Hubble’s Law.
Lemaître
is also credited with proposing what has now become known as the Big Bang
theory – which says that the observable universe began with an explosion of a
single particle.
Born
on 17 July 1894 in Belgium, he initially began studying civil engineering. His
academic pursuits were however put on hold while he served in the Belgian army
for the duration of the First World War.
After
the war, he studied physics and mathematics and was also ordained as a priest.
In
1923 he became a graduate student at the University of Cambridge before going
on to study at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In
1925 he returned to Belgium, where he became a part-time lecturer at the
Catholic University of Leuven. Two years later, he published his groundbreaking
idea of an expanding universe.
His
initial idea was not related specifically to the Big Bang, but his later
research focused on the concept of the universe starting from a single atom.
In
1933 at the California Institute of Technology, some of the greatest scientists
of the time from around the world gathered to hear a series of lectures.
After
Lemaître delivered his lecture and theory, Albert Einstein stood up and said:
“This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I
ever listened."
He was
elected a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Belgium and the
Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
In
1951, Pope Pius XII claimed that Lemaître's theory provided a scientific
validation for Catholicism – a claim that Lemaître resented, as he stated his
theory was neutral.
He
died in 1966, shortly after he discovered the existence of cosmic microwave
background radiation, which added weight to his theory on the birth of the
universe.
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