Hubble’s diagram and cosmic expansion Robert P. Kirshner* Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 Contributed by Robert P. Kirshner, October 21, 2003 Edwin Hubble’s classic article on the expanding universe appeared in PNAS in 1929 [Hubble, E. P. (1929) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 15, 168–173]. The chief result, that a galaxy’s distance is proportional to its redshift, is so well known and so deeply embedded into the language of astronomy through the Hubble diagram, the Hubble constant, Hubble’s Law, and the Hubble time, that the article itself is rarely referenced. Even though Hubble’s distances have a large systematic error, Hubble’s velocities come chiefly from Vesto Melvin Slipher, and the interpretation in terms of the de Sitter effect is out of the mainstream of modern cosmology, this article opened the way to investigation of the expanding, evolving, and accelerating universe that engages today’s burgeoning field of cosmology. he publication of Edwin Hub- ble’s 1929 article ‘‘A relation between distance and radial T velocity among extra-galactic nebulae’’ marked a turning point in un- derstanding the universe. In this brief report, Hubble laid out the evidence for one of the great discoveries in 20th cen- tury science: the expanding universe. Hubble showed that galaxies recede from us in all directions and more dis- tant ones recede more rapidly in pro- portion to their distance. His graph of velocity against distance (Fig. 1) is the original Hubble diagram; the equation that describes the linear fit, velocity ϭ ϫ Ho distance, is Hubble’s Law; the slope of that line is the Hubble con- ͞ stant, Ho; and 1 Ho is the Hubble time. Although there were hints of cosmic Fig. 1. Velocity–distance relation among extra-galactic nebulae. Radial velocities, corrected for solar motion (but labeled in the wrong units), are plotted against distances estimated from involved stars and expansion in earlier work, this is the mean luminosities of nebulae in a cluster. The black discs and full line represent the solution for solar publication that convinced the scientific motion by using the nebulae individually; the circles and broken line represent the solution combining the community that we live in an expanding nebulae into groups; the cross represents the mean velocity corresponding to the mean distance of 22 universe. Because the result is so impor- nebulae whose distances could not be estimated individually. [Reproduced with permission from ref. 1 tant and needs such constant reference, (Copyright 1929, The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens).] astronomers have created eponymous Hubble entities to use Hubble’s aston- ishing discovery without a reference to ridge, luminous matter reveals the pres- of acceleration set in are the route to the original publication in PNAS (1).† ence of unseen objects. illuminating this mystery. Extensions of Hubble’s work with to- Hubble applied the fundamental dis- Today, Ͼ70 years later, exquisite ob- day’s technology have developed vast coveries of Henrietta Leavitt concern- servations of the cosmic microwave new arenas for exploration: extensive ing bright Cepheid variable stars. background (2), measurement of light mapping using Hubble’s Law shows the Leavitt showed that Cepheids can be elements synthesized in the first few arrangement of matter in the universe, sorted in luminosity by observing their minutes of the universe (3), and modern and, by looking further back in time vibration periods: the slow ones are versions of Hubble’s Law form a firm than Hubble could, we now see beyond the intrinsically bright ones. By mea- triangular foundation for modern cos- the nearby linear expansion of Hubble’s suring the period of pulsation, an ob- mology. We now have confidence that a Law to trace how cosmic expansion has server can determine the star’s intrin- geometrically flat universe has been ex- changed over the vast span of time since sic brightness. Then, measuring the panding for the past 14 billion yr, grow- the Big Bang. The big surprise is that apparent brightness supplies enough ing in contrast through the action of recent observations show cosmic expan- information to infer the distance. gravity from a hot and smooth Big Bang sion has been speeding up over the last to the lumpy and varied universe of gal- 5 billion yr. This acceleration suggests axies, stars, planets, and people we see that the other 70% of the universe is This Perspective is published as part of a series highlighting around us. Observations have forced us landmark papers published in PNAS. Read more about composed of a ‘‘dark energy’’ whose this classic PNAS article online at www.pnas.org͞misc͞ to accept a dark and exotic universe properties we only dimly grasp but that classics.shtml. Ϸ that is 30% dark matter with only 4% must have a negative pressure to make *E-mail: [email protected]. of the universe made of familiar protons cosmic expansion speed up over time †There are just 73 citations of Hubble’s original paper in and neutrons. Of that small fraction of (4–9). Future extension of the Hubble NASA’s Astrophysics Data System. There are 1,001 citations familiar material, most is not visible. diagram to even larger distances and of ref. 7. Like a dusting of snow on a mountain more precise distances where the effects © 2003 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA 8–13 ͉ PNAS ͉ January 6, 2004 ͉ vol. 101 ͉ no. 1 www.pnas.org͞cgi͞doi͞10.1073͞pnas.2536799100 Downloaded by guest on September 24, 2021 PERSPECTIVE Hubble used the 100-inch Hooker of a telescope and passing it through a which particles would scatter with an Telescope at Mount Wilson to search slit and a prism to create a dispersed acceleration increasing with distance for these ‘‘standard candles’’ and found rainbow, subtly marked by dark lines. and signals sent from one observer to Cepheids in the fuzzy Andromeda These absorption lines are produced by another would show a redshift. More Nebula, M31. From the faint appear- atoms in the atmospheres of stars. At- physical solutions to Einstein’s equa- ance of those Cepheids, Hubble de- oms absorb light at specific wavelengths, tions, constructed for an expanding duced that M31 and the other ‘‘extra- matching the energy jumps for electron universe, were worked out by Fried- galactic nebulae’’ are not part of our orbits dictated by quantum mechanics. mann in 1922. But those were not the own Milky Way galaxy, but ‘‘island uni- Radial velocities show up as shifts in the models Hubble was thinking of when verses’’ equivalent to the Milky Way: wavelengths of the lines from the galaxy he plotted his data. Hubble was look- vast systems of billions of stars sepa- compared with the spectra of the same ing for the de Sitter effect. rated from one another by millions of atoms at rest in the observatory: blue- Putting distances and velocities to- light years. This finding was in 1924, shifts for objects approaching us and gether on the graph shown as Fig. 1 in and if he had done nothing more than redshifts for objects receding. The frac- Hubble’s classic article, anybody can see to show that the Milky Way is not the tional shift of the wavelength, ⌬␭͞␭,is1 that the velocity is more or less propor- universe, Hubble would have been an ϩ z, where z is the redshift. This result tional to the distance. What transforms important figure in the history of as- can be expressed as a velocity, cz, where this bland diagram into a profound dis- tronomy. But 5 yr later in his PNAS c is the speed of light, 300,000 km͞s. covery is an understanding that the pat- article, Hubble was able to show some- The program of measuring galaxy tern Hubble found is exactly what you thing even more astonishing by plotting spectra had been initiated a decade ear- would expect for any observer in a uni- the velocities of galaxies against their lier by Vesto Melvin Slipher at the Low- verse expanding in all directions. Hub- distances. ell Observatory in Arizona. By 1923, ble’s diagram does not imply that we are Reading Hubble’s article is a healthy after heroic efforts with small telescopes at the center of the universe, but it does reminder of how much clearer things and slow spectrographs, Slipher had show that the universe is dynamic, defi- become with 70 yr of hindsight. For ex- compiled a list of velocities for 41 galax- nitely not static, as Einstein had as- ample, although the Cepheids lie at the ies, 36 of which were receding from us, sumed in 1917. foundation of Hubble’s distance scale, and the largest of which was moving In the text of his article, Hubble says, the distances to most of the objects in away at 1,800 km͞s. This intriguing list ‘‘the outstanding feature is the possibil- his 1929 article were not determined by was published in Arthur Stanley Edding- ity that the velocity-distance relation Cepheids themselves, but by the bright- ton’s textbook on general relativity, The may represent the de Sitter effect.’’ It is est stars in galaxies or by the luminosity Mathematical Theory of Relativity. probably not a coincidence that Hubble of the galaxies themselves. In recent Hubble cites no source for the radial was looking for this effect: he was in years, by using the superb resolution of velocities in table 1 of ref. 1, except for Leiden in 1928 for a conference on gal- the Hubble Space Telescope, named in the four new ones from his Mount Wil- axies, and he had the opportunity to Edwin Hubble’s honor, it is finally possi- son colleague, Milton Humason, but talk with de Sitter.