The Realm of the Nebulae

Edwin Powell Hubble

Yale University Press, 1982 - Science - 207 pages

No modern astronomer made a more profound contribution to our understanding of the cosmos than did Edwin Hubble, who first conclusively demonstrated that the universe is expanding. Basing his theory on the observation of the change in distanct galaxies, called red shift, Hubble showed that this is a Doppler effect, or alteration in the wavelength of light, resulting from the rapid motion of celestial objects away from Earth. In 1935, Hubble described his principal observations and conclusions in the Silliman lectures at Yale University. These lectures were published the following year as "The Realm of the Nebulae," which quickly became a classic work.

Contents

• MagnitudeDifferences and LuminosityRatios: 11
• THE EXPLORATION OF SPACE: 20
• FAMILY TRAITS OF NEBULAE: 36
• THE SEQUENCE OF NEBULAR TYPES: 45
• DiameterLuminosity Relation: 51
• Spectral Types and Colors of Nebula: 53
• Relative Frequencies of Nebular Types: 55
• THE DISTRIBUTION OF NEBULAE: 58
• APPARENT DISTRIBUTION OF NEBULA SHOWING: 62
• DISTRIBUTION OF NEBULA WHEN OBSERVATIONS: 68
• FREQUENCYDISTRIBUTION OF SAMPLES OF VARIOUS: 74
• LIGHT CURVES OF FOUR CEPHEIDS IN MESSIER 31: 95
• The VelocityDistance Relation: 102
• THE FORMULATION OF THE VELOCITYDISTANCE RELA: 114
• The Local Group: 124
• Members of the Local Group: 126
• The General Field: 152
• Absolute Magnitudes of Various Types of Nebulas: 176
• Diameters of Nebula: 178
• Spectrographs Masses of Nebula: 180
• tion obscuring clouds the absorbing layer the general field: 182
• Index: 203

About the author

As an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, Edwin Hubble was an exceptional boxer. His boxing abilities attracted the attention of a promoter who wanted to train him to fight the contemporary world heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson. Hubble, however, resisted the temptations of the boxing ring and instead became a Rhodes scholar. He practiced law for a short time, and in 1914 he found his niche in astronomy, attending the Yerkes Observatory for graduate work. In 1919 Hubble became an astronomer at the Mt. Wilson Observatory, where he remained until 1948. From 1948 to 1953, he was an astronomer at Mt. Palomar Observatory. Hubble's research on galaxies led to his conclusion that galaxies are actually swarms of hundreds of billions of stars. Using his research and that of others (principally Milton Humason and Vesto M. Slipher), Hubble established the relation between redshift and distance, which showed that the universe is expanding.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Realm of the Nebulae; Volume 25 of Mrs. Hepsa Ely Silliman memorial lectures; Volume 25 of Silliman Memorial Lectures; Silliman Milestones in Science Series
• Author: Edwin Powell Hubble
• Edition: illustrated, reprint, revised
• Publisher: Yale University Press, 1982
• ISBN: 0300025009, 9780300025002
• Length: 207 pages
• Subjects: Science / Astronomy