The Star that lit the Universe
Consider the pursuit and acquisition of knowledge.
Ninety-four years ago today, the modern universe “appeared”
When my father was born in 1916, the world still maintained a Copernican understanding of our galaxy. In essence, the conventional wisdom was that the universe was made up of just one galaxy – our own Milky Way galaxy.
By 1923, [virtually overnight, our entire perception of the universe changed]. The discovery of a single star heralded our modern understanding of the universe!
On October 5, 1923, Edwin Hubble discovered a Cepheid variable star in what was then known as the Andromeda Nebula.
So by the time my mother was born in 1925, the Universe went from a single [Milky Way] Galaxy, to literally hundred of Millions…
Hubble determined that this object was 1 million light-years away, more than three times the then-calculated Milky Way diameter. (Better measurements today put Andromeda at more than 2 million light-years away.)
Hubble Deep Field
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