Georges Lemaitre - Great scientist of the 20th century to Einstein also admired

Georges Lemaitre is both a monk and a scientist. He has many contributions to science and is considered one of the greatest scientists in the 20th century.

One day in January 1933 at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California (USA), many of the world's greatest scientists from all over the world came here to listen to a series of presentations, among them Edwin Hubble and Albert Einstein. The scientist Einstein proved extremely impressed with a man's lecture, to the extent that he uttered: 'This is the most wonderful and satisfying explanation I have ever heard.'

Eistein left his home country in the United States. Few people know about his companion at the time, a Belgian Catholic pastor named Georges Lemaitre , a man Einstein greatly respected. Georges Lemaitre was a religious person and a great scientist or more accurately a cosmologist . He studied the universe, mainly focusing on the origins of the case. His studies, beliefs and conclusions have a great influence on the understanding of human existence today.

Scientist Georges Lemaitre.(Photo: Wikicommons).

Born in 1894 in Charleroi, Belgium, Mr. Georges was passionate about researching how things work around him. He started studying civil engineering at the Catholic University of Leuven, the largest French university in Belgium. He temporarily stopped studying to serve in the Belgian army during World War I. He is an admirable officer. At the end of the war, he received the Belgian War Gem, a reward for brave men in battle. Later, he returned to the university and then took a degree in mathematics and philosophy.

Since he was a boy, Georges was devout and understood the relationship of religion with science. He has an example for him, his former teacher: Cardinal Desire Mercier - who has many progressive views on philosophy and cosmology. Therefore, instead of joining academics, he went to become a priest. On September 23, 1923, Georges Lemaitre was ordained a priest by Cardinal Mercier.

In his free time, Father Georges Lemaitre continued to study science, especially general doctrine and special relativity. Cardinal Mercier recognized the talent of Georges and allowed him to study at the prestigious Harvard Observatory. During that time, Mr. Georges also obtained a doctorate in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Thanks to his rich and rich education, Georges can go on the road with famous cosmologists and astronomers of the same time, including George Hale and Vesto Slipher.

At this time, Mr. Georges discovered a profound theory that still affects the way we study the universe to this day. In 1927, he published an article describing the theory and description of the universe's expansion. Using Einstein's theory of relativity as a guide, Georges surmised that the universe was constantly expanding and therefore the distance between galaxies also increased. Later, Hubble proved the same and, to this day, Hubble is still generally considered the first to suggest the idea, not Georges.

Georges Lemaitre (left) and Albert Einstein.(Photo: Flickr).

Later, Georges discovered the expansion rate related to the distance between galaxies and the Earth (later known as Hubble's law). He is also the one who finds what is now known as the Hubble Constant .

In both cases, Georges studied those issues before Hubble published the same work. The real contribution of Hubble in this case is to provide an observational basis for Georges' largely mathematical theory.

Unfortunately for Mr. Georges, his Nobel Prize-winning research had little impact on the scientific community because it was published in a magazine rarely read outside of Belgium. However, there was a special person who read the study. That's Albert Einstein.

Georges Lamaitre and Albert Enstein first met in 1927 at the 5th Solvay Conference in Brussels. Impressed by the results of Georges' research but not wavered, Einstein said : 'His calculation is correct but the physical part is very bad . ' Later, Einstein regretted the comment and nominated Georges to win the Francqui Prize, the most prestigious scientific research award in Belgium. King Leopold III awarded this award to Georges in 1934. He was also the President of the Pontifical Science Institute until his death in 1966.

In 1931, wanting his theory to be more readable, Georges wrote the article to Arthur Eddington, an English astrophysicist who wanted scientific theories to be approached. He was the announcer and helped explain Einstein's theory of relativity to the English-speaking world when Einstein was still working in Germany.

Eddington translated Georges' work and published it on the 'Monthly Announcement of the Royal Astronomical Society' - a review magazine still exists today. In the translation, there are two missing pages compared to the original works in French. These two pages are the pages about Hubble Constant. That's why many people still associate this constant with Edwin Hubble instead of Georges Lemaitre. It is not clear why these two pages are not in English translation.

After posting this work, Georges himself and the skeptics all realized that there was something missing in the doctrine. The universe continues to expand, but how and when does this expansion process take place?

This question confused Georges, but he continued to ask questions and answer. Just a few months later, using Eddington's 1931 presentation on the end of the universe as a guide, Georges came up with another breakthrough theory. On May 9, 1931, in a letter to Nature (still active today), Georges wrote:

'If the world starts with a single quantum, the idea of ​​space and time will have no meaning at the beginning. Space and time will only begin to make sense when the original quantum is divided into enough quantum numbers. If this is true, the origin of the world has taken place just before the beginning of space and time. '

This was introduced by Georges in a series of essays entitled 'Early Atomic' in 1950, in which he considered the beginning as 'now without yesterday' (also known as 'the day without yesterday'). . This is the basis of this 'Big Bang Theory' after some other scientists supplemented the theory of Georges.

Many people at that time disagreed with this original doctrine. They think that because of being a priest, Georges was influenced by religion in scientific research. In fact, Pope Pious XII in 1952 declared the Big Bang Theory affirming the notion of 'supreme creator' and therefore, in accordance with Catholic dogma.

Georges did not appreciate this pope's view and vehemently argued with the Pope on this issue. He wanted the Pope to not use his work to reason for messianism and wanted his work to stand alone, unrelated to religious ideas.

Despite conflict, Georges detailed all these doctrines in detail at an audience at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena in 1933. His theory holds that when the first atom exploded, it would create time and space and then expand the universe.

When Georges finished his presentation and was praised by Einstein, New York Times journalist Duncan Aikman reported about the conference, taking photos of two accompanying scientists commenting: 'They respect and admire each other'.

In the article about the conference, Aikman wrote: 'Georges Lemaitre said again and again in this country that there is no conflict between religion and science. His view was interesting and important not because he was a Catholic priest, nor because he was one of the leading mathematicians of our time, but because of both.