埃德温·哈勃发现宇宙
(原标题: Edwin Hubble Discovers the Universe)
2023-10-06
浏览次数: 15
我们的宇宙有多大？1920年，两位著名的天文学家就这个问题进行了辩论，后来被称为天文学的大辩论。当时许多天文学家认为我们的银河系就是整个宇宙。然而，还有很多人认为我们的星系只是众多星系中的一个。在大辩论中，每个论点都很详细，但没有达成共识。三年后，随着在仙女座星云中检测到的单个点的变化，答案出现了，正如在这里数字复制的原始玻璃发现板上所示。当埃德温·哈勃比较图像时，他注意到这个点发生了变化，并于1923年10月6日在盘子上写下了“VAR!”哈勃知道，最好的解释是，这个斑点是一颗非常遥远的变星的图像。所以M31实际上是仙女座星系——一个可能与我们的星系相似的星系。100年前，这张特写图片可能并不漂亮，但它上的可变点打开了一扇窗户，人类第一次有意识地凝视着一个惊人的浩瀚宇宙。
查看原文解释
How big is our universe? This question, among others, was debated by two leading astronomers in 1920 in what has since become known as astronomy's Great Debate. Many astronomers then believed that our Milky Way Galaxy was the entire universe. Many others, though, believed that our galaxy was just one of many. In the Great Debate, each argument was detailed, but no consensus was reached. The answer came over three years later with the detected variation of single spot in the Andromeda Nebula, as shown on the original glass discovery plate digitally reproduced here. When Edwin Hubble compared images, he noticed that this spot varied, and on October 6, 1923 wrote "VAR!" on the plate. The best explanation, Hubble knew, was that this spot was the image of a variable star that was very far away. So M31 was really the Andromeda Galaxy -- a galaxy possibly similar to our own. Annotated 100 years ago, the featured image may not be pretty, but the variable spot on it opened a window through which humanity gazed knowingly, for the first time, into a surprisingly vast cosmos.
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