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Creation Day 2: The Stretching of the Raqia
In 1917, Albert Einstein and other scientists realized that his equation for general relativity did not describe an unchanging, static universe, but a dynamic universe controlled by a mysterious force Einstein called the "cosmological constant". Einstein had to wait another twelve years before a man named Edwin Hubble could provide conclusive evidence that such an invisible force was present throughout the universe; a force that exerted enough energy to cause the entire universe to expand outward in all directions.
Trained initially as a lawyer, in 1914 Edwin Hubble moved on to pursue his passion in the field of astronomy. Until that time, astronomers had no clue as to the vastness of our universe or even if there were other galaxies beyond our Milky Way. In 1923, using the largest telescope of his time, the 100 inch reflecting telescope built on top of Mount Wilson in California, Hubble helped resolve one of the great debates in early 20th century astronomy, the question of what were the nebulae? Some astronomers thought these gaseous, fuzzy clouds were the formation of solar systems like our own or possibly the creation of baby stars. For five years, Edwin Hubble gathered data on distant galaxies. He recorded where the galaxies were headed and how fast they were moving. If a galaxy is moving away from earth, its light was stretched and the wave appeared red. Hubble called this stretching of light the " redshift ".
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