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Georges Lemaître
Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître was a Belgian Catholic priest, theoretical physicist, and mathematician who made major contributions to cosmology and astrophysics. He was the first to argue that the recession of galaxies is evidence of an expanding universe and to connect the observational Hubble–Lemaître law with the solution to the Einstein field equations in the general theory of relativi…
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science · Belgian scientist and Catholic priest (1894–1966) · cosmologist · mathematician · Catholic priest · university teacher · physicist · astrophysicist · astronomer · Catholic theologian · also Georges Lemaître, Lemaître
Born 17 July 1894 · Died 20 June 1966 · Q12998
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2026· 1 entry
2023· 1 entry
Phys.org: Lost video of Georges Lemaître, father of the Big Bang theory, recovered
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2018· 4 entries
The Mirror: Who was Georges Lemaître? 124th birthday of Big Bang Theory astronomer celebrated with Google Doodle
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NDTV: Google Doodle Honours Georges Lemaitre- The Man Behind Big Bang Theory
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India TV: Google Doodle celebrates Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaitre’s 124th birth anniversary
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The International Astronomical Union (IAU) adopted a resolution recommending that it be referred to as the "Hubble-Lemaître law"
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2015· 1 entry
Phys.org: Image: Final goodbye to ESA automated transfer vehicle Georges Lemaître
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2014· 2 entries
SpaceNews: Ariane 5 launcher integration is on the horizon for ATV Georges Lemaître
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SpaceNews: The Ariane 5 for ATV Georges Lemaître is transferred to Arianespace in the Final Assembly Building
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2012· 1 entry
SpaceNews: Fifth ATV named after Georges Lemaitre
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2011· 1 entry
By Mario Livio: Lemaître himself removed those paragraphs when he prepared the English translation, opting instead to cite the stronger results that Hubble had published in 1929
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2005· 1 entry
Lemaître was voted to the 61st place of De Grootste Belg ("The Greatest Belgian"), a Flemish television program on the VRT
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1966· 2 entries
Died 1966-06-20.
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“Ho troppo rispetto per Dio per farne un'ipotesi scientifica.”
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1965· 1 entry
Shortly before his death, Lemaître learned from his assistant Odon Godart of the recent discovery of the CMB by radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson
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1962· 1 entry
Lemaître established the Association du corps académique et du personnel scientifique de l'Université de Louvain (ACAPSUL, "Association of the faculty and scientific personnel of the University of Louvain") to advocate f
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1960· 2 entries
Pope John XXIII appointed him as Domestic Prelate entitling him to be addressed as "Monsignor"
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Was named domestic prelate (with the treatment of "Monsignor") by Pope John XXIII
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1958· 2 entries
That "if some extension of relativity towards a broader field, such as quantum theory, has to be achieved the superfluous
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“if some extension of relativity towards a broader field, such as quantum theory, has to be achieved the superfluous Λ {\displaystyle \Lambda } term shall be very much welcomed”
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1953· 3 entries
Won Eddington Medal (1953).
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Was given the inaugural Eddington Medal by the Royal Astronomical Society
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"for his work on the expansion of the universe
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1951· 1 entry
Pope Pius XII gave an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, with Lemaître in the audience, in which he drew a parallel between the new Big Bang cosmology and the Christian doctrine of creatio ex nihilo:
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1948· 2 entries
Theoreticians Ralph Alpher, Robert Herman, and George Gamow predicted a different form of "fossil radiation" based on the Big Bang model, now known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB)
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Lemaître published a mathematical essay titled Quaternions et espace elliptique ("Quaternions and elliptic space")
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1946· 1 entry
Lemaître published a book on L'Hypothèse de l'Atome Primitif ("The Primeval Atom Hypothesis"), which was translated into Spanish in the same year and into English in 1950
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1941· 1 entry
Was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Belgium
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1936· 3 entries
Awarded Prix Jules Janssen (1936).
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And took an active role there, serving as its president from March 1960 until his death
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Lemaître received the Prix Jules Janssen, the highest award of the Société astronomique de France, the French astronomical society
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1934· 2 entries
Awarded Francqui Prize (1934).
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Won Mendel Medal (1934).
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1933· 2 entries
Lemaître found an important inhomogeneous solution of Einstein's field equations describing a spherical dust cloud, the Lemaître–Tolman metric
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At the California Institute of Technology, after Lemaître presented his theory, Einstein stood up, applauded, and is reported to have said, "This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I
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1931· 1 entry
An English translation of Lemaître's 1927 report appeared in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, with a commentary by Arthur Eddington that characterized Lemaître's work as a "brilliant solution" to th
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1929· 1 entry
The US astronomer Edwin Hubble published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America showing, based on better and more abundant data than what Lemaître had had at his di
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1927· 4 entries
That, in the average, galaxies recede at a velocity proportional to their distance from the observer
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In Brussels, at the time of a Solvay Conference; in 1932 in Belgium, at the time of a cycle of conferences in Brussels; in California in January 1933; and in 1935 at Princeton
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Studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1924–1927).
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Lemaître returned to MIT to defend his doctoral dissertation on The gravitational field in a fluid sphere of uniform invariant density according to the theory of relativity
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1925· 1 entry
Lemaître became a part-time lecturer at the Catholic University of Louvain and began working on a report that was finally published in 1927 in the Annales de la Société Scientifique de Bruxelles ("Annals of the Scientifi
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1924· 1 entry
Studied at University of Cambridge (1923–1924).
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1923· 1 entry
Studied at Grand Seminary Mechelen (1920–1923).
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1922· 1 entry
Lemaître applied to the Belgian Ministry of Sciences and Arts for a travel bursary
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1920· 2 entries
Studied at Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) (1911–1920).
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With a thesis titled L'approximation des fonctions de plusieurs variables réelles ("The approximation of functions of several real variables"), written under the direction of mathematician Charles de la Vallée-Poussin
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1919· 1 entry
Also completed the course taught at the Higher Institute of Philosophy, established by Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier to promote neo-Thomism
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1918· 1 entry
Awarded Military Cross (1918).
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1917· 1 entry
Attempted to prove the creation story of Genesis 1, specifically the idea of ex nihilo nihil fit (out of nothing, nothing comes)
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1914· 1 entry
After the outbreak of World War I, Lemaître interrupted his studies to volunteer for the Belgian army
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1911· 1 entry
Lemaître began to study engineering at the Catholic University of Louvain
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1910· 1 entry
After a fire destroyed the glassworks, the family moved to Brussels, where Joseph had found a new position as manager for the French bank Société Générale
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1894· 1 entry
Born 1894-07-17.
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