help needed,when was the first galaxy called a galaxy

[alan meehan]

The reason iam asking is that i was shown a magazine that said and i quote;When Albert Einstein published his special theory of relativity in 1905 he and many other scientists believed that the universe consisted of just one galaxy -our milky way"
could this be true or were they called nebula until edward hubble measured the first cefied variable in 1923,can anyone help me on this
ALAN

[renormalised]

That's pretty much spot on. It was Edwin Hubble that proved that the "spiral nebulae" were, in fact, separate galaxies to our own.

[alan meehan]

Thanks Carl i guess that is correct it seems hard to believe that only 100 yrs ago we still did not know that spiral nebula were galaxies,we have come long way since then.
ALAN

[ballaratdragons]

I had an Astronomy book printed in the 1920's and Galaxies were called Nebulae in it.

I gave the book to one of the members in here when I offered it for free to a good home, so that person (I can't remember who it was) can give you the exact print date and quote sections from the book about it :thumbsup:

[Robh]

On the Andromeda Galaxy ...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_galaxy

Read the section Island universe.

Regards, Rob

[alan meehan]

Thanks Rob that is a good read
ALAN