Hubble Law or Hubble-Lema\^itre Law? The IAU Resolution
Abstract
The Hubble law, widely considered the first observational basis for the expansion of the universe, may in the future be known as the Hubble-Lema\^itre law. This is what the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union recommended at its recent meeting in Vienna. However, the resolution in favour of a renamed law is problematic in so far as concerns its arguments based on the history of cosmology in the relevant period from about 1927 to the early 1930s. A critical examination of the resolution reveals flaws of a non-trivial nature. The purpose of this note is to highlight these problems and to provide a better historically informed background for the voting among the union's members, which in a few months' time will result in either a confirmation or a rejection of the decision made by the General Assembly.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1809.02557,
title = {Hubble Law or Hubble-Lema\^itre Law? The IAU Resolution},
author = {Helge Kragh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.02557},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
7 pages, no figures