Title: Verification of the anecdote about Edwin Hubble and the Nobel Prize,
Abstract: Edwin Powel Hubble is regarded as one of the most important astronomers of
20th century. In despite of his great contributions to the field of astronomy,
he never received the Nobel Prize because astronomy was not considered as the
field of the Nobel Prize in Physics at that era. There is an anecdote about the
relation between Hubble and the Nobel Prize. According to this anecdote, the
Nobel Committee decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1953 to Hubble
as the first Nobel laureate as an astronomer (Christianson 1995). However,
Hubble was died just before its announcement, and the Nobel prize is not
awarded posthumously. Documents of the Nobel selection committee are open after
50 years, thus this anecdote can be verified. I confirmed that the Nobel
selection committee endorsed Frederik Zernike as the Nobel laureate in Physics
in 1953 on September 15th, 1953, which is 13 days before the Hubble's death in
September 28th, 1953. I also confirmed that Hubble and Henry Norris Russell
were nominated but they are not endorsed because the Committee concluded their
astronomical works were not appropriate for the Nobel Prize in Physics.