How old was Edwin Hubble when he died?

Edwin Hubble was 63 years old when he died on September 28, 1953. He was born on November 20, 1889, so he had not yet reached his 64th birthday.

Hubble died in San Marino, California, after suffering a cerebral thrombosis. He had continued working in observational astronomy during the final years of his life, maintaining his connection with the Mount Wilson and Palomar observatories. His death came less than three decades after his most influential discoveries about galaxies and the expanding universe.

Hubble’s age can be confused because his career stretched across several major stages: undergraduate study in the early 1900s, service in World War I, doctoral research completed in 1921, and landmark galaxy research during the 1920s. His most famous work was therefore completed when he was in his thirties and forties, not near the end of his life.

The same 1953 date is also important in the history of astronomy because Hubble died before the launch of the space telescope later named in his honor. The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990.