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Georges Lemaître facts for kids
| Georges Lemaître | |
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Monseigneur Georges Lemaître, priest and scientist
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| Born | 17 July 1894 Charleroi, Belgium |
| Died | 20 June 1966 (aged 71) Leuven, Belgium |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Fields | Cosmology Astrophysics |
| Institutions | Catholic University of Louvain |
| Alma mater | Cambridge University |
| Known for | Theory of the expansion of the Universe Big Bang theory |
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Monsignor Georges Lemaître (Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître, 17 July 1894 – 20 June 1966) was a Belgian priest, astronomer and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain.
He was the first person to say the Universe is growing. Some people think it was Edwin Hubble, but that is not correct. Lemaître was also the first to make the Hubble's law and the Hubble constant. Lemaître also started what became known as the Big Bang theory of the origin of the Universe. He called it his 'hypothesis of the primeval atom'.
Images for kids
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According to the Big Bang theory, the universe emerged from an extremely dense and hot state (singularity). Space itself has been expanding ever since, carrying galaxies with it, like raisins in a rising loaf of bread. The graphic scheme above is an artist's conception illustrating the expansion of a portion of a flat universe.