BIG BANG
Georges Lemaître celebrated with Google Doodle – who was the Big Bang Theory father and Belgian priest?
The Belgian astronomer and physics teacher was said to be the first person in history to claim that the universe is expanding
GOOGLE’S now famous Doodles are used to celebrate major world events, anniversaries and notable men and women throughout global history.
Today’s Doodle celebrates the 124th birthday of Georges Lemaître – the man who discovered the universe was continuously expanding. Here’s more about the father of the Big Bang Theory, his life and his work.
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Who was Georges Lemaître?
Georges Lemaître was an astronomer, physics professor and one-time Catholic priest.
He was born in Charleroi, Belgium, on July 17, 1894 and died in Leuven, Belgium, on June 20, 1966, at the age of 71.
Lemaître is widely thought to be the very first person to theorise that the universe is expanding.
His theory was later observationally confirmed by Edwin Hubble, and went on to be known as Hubble’s Law.
Lemaître is also credited with proposing what is today known as "The Big Bang Theory", the claim that the universe came to be with the explosion of a single particle.
He called it the "hypothesis of the primeval atom" or the “Cosmic Egg”, making the first reference to it in one of his academic papers from 1931.
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What was his career path like?
As a young man, Lemaître initially began studying civil engineering, but his academic pursuits were put on hold by the outbreak of the First World War where he served in the Belgian Army.
After the War, he studied physics and mathematics, gaining a doctorate in 1920.
He became ordained as a priest in 1923.
That same year, he became a graduate student at the University of Cambridge before going on to study at Harvard and MIT.
Lemaître returned to Belgium in 1925, where he became a part-time lecturer at the Catholic University of Leuven.
Two years later he published his groundbreaking ideas of an expanding universe.
It would be more years before his research would focus on the concept of the Big Bang Theory.
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What is the Big Bang Theory?
The Big Bang is a scientific theory about how the universe started, and then made the stars and galaxies we see today.
The universe began as a very hot, small and dense superforce (the mix of the four fundamental forces), with no stars, atoms, form, or structure (called a "singularity").
Then about 13.9billion years ago, space expanded very quickly, starting the formation of atoms, which eventually led to the formation of stars and galaxies.
Lemaître first noted that an expanding universe could be traced back in time to an originating single point.
Scientists agree that the universe is still expanding today, and getting colder as well.
Much of what we understand about the Big Bang Theory comes from mathematical formulas and models.
MORE IN SCIENCE
What is a Google Doodle?
In 1998, the search engine founders Larry and Sergey drew a stick figure behind the second 'o' of Google as a message to that they were out of office at the Burning Man festival and with that, Google Doodles were born.
The company decided that they should decorate the logo to mark cultural moments and it soon became clear that users really enjoyed the change to the Google homepage.
In that same year, a turkey was added to Thanksgiving and two pumpkins appeared as the 'o's for Halloween the following year.
Now, there is a full team of doodlers, illustrators, graphic designers, animators and classically trained artists who help create what you see on those days.
Among the Doodles published in 2018 were ones commemorating cartographerAbraham Ortelius, Egyptian actor Omar Sharif and St Patrick's Day.
Earlier in the year, the search giant celebrated the Paralympics in 2018 in Pyeongchang with an animated design celebrating each of the sports the winter Paralympians will compete in.
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