What conceptual hurdle did the realization of Andromeda's distance force upon established scientists before the mid-1920s?
Answer
Radically revising the known size of the cosmos
The reigning view held that the Milky Way encompassed the entirety of known existence. For Andromeda to be a separate system of stars at the calculated distance suggested by Hubble’s Cepheid measurement, it had to be unimaginably distant. This forced established scientists to confront the necessity of radically revising the known size of the cosmos. Before Hubble’s proof, the universe was measured in tens of thousands of light-years; afterwards, it was measured in millions, revealing the Milky Way was just one small part of a much larger reality.
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