Google Doodle celebrates 124th birth anniversary of astronomer behind Big Bang Theory, Georges Lemaître

Google Doodle celebrates the 124th birthday of famed Belgian astronomer, Georges Lemaître. Lemaître was best known for formulating the modern big bang theory in 1927. The theory suggests that the universe began with a huge explosion of a small ‘super-atom.’

He was an astronomer and professor of physics who is thought to be the first to have theorised that the universe is expanding. He was also a Belgian Catholic priest.

His theory was observationally confirmed soon afterwards by Edwin Hubble in what is now known as Hubble’s Law.


Born on 17 July 1894 in Belgium, he initially began studying civil engineering.

In 1923 he became a graduate student at the University of Cambridge before going on to study at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).



In 1925 he returned to Belgium, where he became a part-time lecturer at the Catholic University of Leuven.

It was during his time at MIT that he became acquainted with the findings of Edwin Hubble and Harlow Shapley on the expanding universe.

In 1933 at the California Institute of Technology, some of the greatest scientists of the time from around the world gathered to hear a series of lectures.

After Lemaître delivered his lecture and theory, Albert Einstein stood up and said: “This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I ever listened."

He was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Belgium and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

In 1951, Pope Pius XII claimed that Lemaître's theory provided a scientific validation for Catholicism – a claim that Lemaître resented, as he stated his theory was neutral.

He died in 1966, shortly after he discovered the existence of cosmic microwave background radiation, which added weight to his theory on the birth of the universe.