On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
“The 200-inch Hale telescope on Palomar Mountain in California has given a tentative answer to one of the main questions it was built to explore: Does the universe continue to expand with increasing speed out beyond the seeing limits of earlier telescopes? The answer seems to be yes. At a distance of 360 million light-years, the limit of the 200-inch’s penetration so far, the nebulae apparently are receding from the earth with a velocity of 38,000 miles per second, at the rate predicted by the expanding-universe theory.”
—Scientific American, August 1951
More gems from Scientific American’s first 175 years can be found on our shiny anniversary page.