Tag Archives: sof-Lemaitre

Faith and the Expanding Universe of Georges Lemaître

Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

Article 5000 words Level: high school and above This 2019 article is unique in that it is an article about a Catholic scientist, written by a Catholic scientist and published in a Catholic journal. The article is about Fr. George Lemaître, the inventor of the Big Bang theory. The writer is Jonathan Lunine, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell University, director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, and vice president of the Society of Catholic Scientists. The journal is the University of Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal. Lunine writes that On October 29th of 2018, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voted to recommend renaming Hubble’s Law the “Hubble-Lemaître Law.” That such a vote would take place today—during a time when science and faith are portrayed in the media as implacable foes—speaks to the remarkable character of Lemaître himself, the Belgian monsignor and astronomer who made a number of fundamental contributions to the … Continue reading →

Georges Lemaître and the foundations of Big Bang cosmology

Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

Article 19 pages  Level: high school and above This article by astronomer Simon Mitton of St Edmund’s College of Cambridge University provides an overview of the life and work of Fr. Georges Lemaître that contains sufficient detail to satisfy the reader who has interest in Lemaître but that does not get into the level of detail found in a full biography.  The article was published in the journal The Antiquarian Astronomer in 2020. Mitton discusses Lemaître’s family and his military service in the First World War as much as he discusses his scientific work on what has come to be known as “The Big Bang Theory”. Mitton writes: On 1998 September 1, The Astronomical Journal published a spectacular paper announcing the discovery of the accelerating Universe…. The excitement at the time was palpable, and I vividly remember my cosmology colleagues in Cambridge exclaiming that ‘Lemaître’s cosmological constant is inflating the universe’. Overnight it seemed that a huge catch-up industry had … Continue reading →

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the Hubble–Lemaître law

Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

Article (2) 1900 words (total) Level: all audiences In October 2018 the International Astronomical Union voted overwhelmingly to change the name of the “Hubble law” (relating distance and velocity in the universe’s expansion) to the “Hubble–Lemaître law”, thus including the name of Fr. Georges Lemaître in the law.  These are two articles from the prominent journals Science and Nature discussing the IAU vote. Click here for an article on the vote from Nature. Click here for an article on the vote from Science.  

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Who Discovered the Expanding Universe

Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

Article 22 pages Level: university Historians of science Helge Kragh and Robert W. Smith provide an overview of the discovery of the expanding universe and who might be credited with making that discovery.  They argue that, while Edwin Hubble is generally credited with the discovery of the expansion of the universe, and while a number of different scientists did in fact contribute to the discovery in significant ways, in fact Fr. Georges Lemaître discovered the expansion of the universe, insofar as he gave theoretical and observational reasons for it. (Lemaître would go on to become a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1936, and to serve as its president from 1960 until his death in 1966). Hubble, meanwhile was ambivilant towards the whole concept of an expanding universe. Kragh and Smith also discuss why Hubble is credited with the discovery. They trace the history of how Hubble’s role in the discovery was elevated, “at the expense of everyone … Continue reading →

Robert Scherrer – Georges Lemaitre’s Contributions to Cosmology

Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

Video 27 minutes Level: high school and above Cosmologist Robert Scherrer of Vanderbilt University discusses Albert Einstein, Vesto Slipher, Alexander Friedmann, Fr. Georges Lemaitre, and how the idea of the expansion of the universe came into being. The focus of the talk, given at the inaugural conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists, is the ideas and work of Fr. Lemaitre.  Scherrer argues that Fr. Lemaitre was ahead of his time in a number of ways. Click here for an article from Our Sunday Visitor entitled “Catholic scientists discuss faith’s role in work”, on the first conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists—“Origins”—held April 21-23, 2017 in Chicago. Click here for the Society of Catholic Scientists “Origins” conference page.  

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Lemaître: Science and Religion

Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

To appreciate the contribution which Georges Lemai?tre made to the relationship between religion and science it is necessary to understand how the Catholic Church passed from a position of conflict to one of compatible openness and dialogue; the natural sciences have played a significant role in helping to establish the kind of dialogue that is absolutely necessary for the enrichment of the multifaceted aspects of human culture.

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Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy

Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

Book (with accompanying video) 200 pages Level: university Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy (Berlin: Springer Verlag, 2012) edited by R. D. Holder and Simon Mitton, examines in detail the historical, cosmological, philosophical and theological issues surrounding the development of the Big Bang theory by Fr. Lemaître, from its beginnings in the pioneering work of Lemaître through to the modern day. From the publisher’s site: The year 2011 marked the 80th anniversary of Georges Lemaître’s primeval atom model of the universe, forerunner of the modern day Big Bang theory. Prompted by this momentous anniversary the Royal Astronomical Society decided to publish a volume of essays on the life, work and faith of this great cosmologist, who was also a Roman Catholic priest. The papers presented in this book examine in detail the historical, cosmological, philosophical and theological issues surrounding the development of the Big Bang theory from its beginnings in the pioneering work of Lemaître through to the modern day. This book offers … Continue reading →