Which laboratory did Hubble work for at Aberdeen Proving Ground in World War II?

Edwin Hubble worked for the Ballistic Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground during World War II.

Hubble left Mount Wilson Observatory in 1942 to contribute to the American war effort. His background in observational astronomy and mathematics translated naturally into ballistics—the study of projectile motion, trajectories, and aerodynamic behavior. At Aberdeen, he became chief of the laboratory’s External Ballistics Branch.

His work included research on bombs, rockets, and other projectiles. He also directed the development and use of a supersonic wind tunnel, which supplied data for improving the design and performance of high-speed weapons. Hubble’s wartime duties were therefore very different from his famous studies of galaxies, but they used related skills in measurement, prediction, and motion.

A common mix-up is to associate Hubble with a civilian physics laboratory such as Los Alamos or the Radiation Laboratory. Those institutions were important to wartime science, but Aberdeen’s Ballistic Research Laboratory was the organization connected with Hubble’s World War II service.