Edwin Hubble (1889�1953), American astronomer, who made important contributions to the study of galaxies, the expansion of the universe, and the size of the universe. Hubble was the first to discover that fuzzy patches of light in the sky called spiral nebula were actually galaxies like Earth’s galaxy, the Milky Way. Hubble also found the first evidence for the expansion of the universe, and his work led to a much better understanding of the universe’s size.