Ken Freeman: Expanding Universe Conference (http://www.lowell.edu/workshops/slipher)

Title: Slipher and the Nature of the Nebulae

Abstract: By 1915, Slipher had shown that some of the nebulae had radial velocities in
excess of 1000 km/s. At this time, the nature of the nebulae was controversial.
In the context of what was known about the kinematics of objects in the
Milky Way, the extreme velocities of the nebulae seem like a fairly clear
indication of the extragalactic nature of the nebulae. Slipher himself pointed
out that his velocities favored the Island Universe concept. But for some
reason, his data did not have the impact on the controversy that one might
have expected. I am interested in why some major discoveries do not have the
impact that they deserve at the time that they were made. Sometimes they are
too far ahead of their time and, as in Slipher's case, the discoverer does not
really get the credit for the discovery even after its significance is
understood. I will briefly discuss some other examples of this phenomenon.

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