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Heber Curtis
(27 Jun 1872 - 9 Jan 1942)
American astronomer who famously debated Harlow Shapley on the “island universe” nature of spiral nebulae. Curtis interpreted evidence that the nebulae were composed of stars and were separate galaxies. Shapley disagreed.
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Science Quotes by Heber Curtis (1 quote)
The evidence at present available points strongly to the conclusion that the spirals are individual galaxies, or island universes, comparable with our own galaxy in dimension and in number of component units.
[Stating his conviction on the nature of nebulae during the Shapley-Curtis debate on 26 Apr 1920 to the National Academy of Sciences.]
[Stating his conviction on the nature of nebulae during the Shapley-Curtis debate on 26 Apr 1920 to the National Academy of Sciences.]
— Heber Curtis
In Aleksandr Sergeevich Sharov and Igor Dmitrievich Novikov, Edwin Hubble: The Discoverer of the Big Bang Universe (1993), 27.
See also:
- 27 Jun - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Curtis's birth.
- The Day We Found the Universe, by Marcia Bartusiak. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
