Belgian Roman Catholic priest Georges Lémaître, professor …

Years: 1927 - 1927

Belgian Roman Catholic priest Georges Lémaître, professor of physics and astronomer at the Catholic University of Leuven, in 1927 proposes what will become known as the Big Bang theory of the origin of the Universe, which he calls his 'hypothesis of the primeval atom'.

Lemaître proposes his theory at an opportune time, since Edwin Hubble would soon publish his velocity-distance relation that strongly supports an expanding universe and, consequently, the Big Bang theory.

In fact, Lemaître's 1927 paper derives what is to become known as Hubble's Law, two years before Hubble does so, and provides an estimate of the numerical value of the constant.

However, the data used by Lemaitre do not allow him to prove that there is an actual linear relation, a result achieved by Hubble.

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