🕒 🅰️ 👨🏼‍🎨 15 women who have made a great contribution to astronomy ♑️ 🥓 🖖

Hello everyone, Khabrovtsy!

Today I want to share with you a very beautiful and interesting, in my opinion, article that was being prepared for the beautiful holiday of March 8th. It is worth noting that in the social. She went very well online and was appreciated by readers. I am sure that here it can be of interest to many. I’m sorry to publish it late, I just haven’t been registered here on such a pleasant and interesting resource.

Well, interesting reading, friends!

Maria Mitchell (second from left) and her students measure the rotation of the Sun by the movement of sunspots. Photo provided by Vassar College Library.

It is no secret that women have fought for equal rights with men and must still fight for them. History is a wonderful reminder of how far women have come in this matter. But in truth, women got most of their rights only in the 20th century.

In the world of astronomy, the same thing happened. In the early years of astronomical discoveries, women mainly worked as assistants to men, who, in turn, took the lead in scientific work and projects. In fact, women were not even allowed to operate telescopes until the first few years of the 20th century. And this state of affairs was accepted as the norm. In this article, the reader is invited to learn about how the role of women in astronomy of the 20th century developed, as well as about their greatest achievements in astrophysics.

The following is a list of fifteen exemplary female astronomers whose contribution to this field of science, whether it is the search for a new planet, an asteroid, or the discovery of new astronomical phenomena, far exceeds their honor.

1. Caroline Herschel

The German astronomer and sister (and assistant) of the astronomer who discovered Uranus - William Herschel - Caroline - the first woman to discover a comet. For all the years of her work, she discovered seven comets under her name, including the periodic comet 35P / Herschel-Rigollet.

Caroline Herschel is also known for being the first astronomer to catalog stars and nebulae. Throughout her career, she was able to discover 14 nebulae, one of which is the Monsieur 110 nebula. Together with Mary Somerville, she was elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1835; they were the first two women in history to hold such a position. In subsequent years, she also received many awards, including the King of Prussia Gold Medal for achievements in science.

2. Henrietta Swan Leavitt

An American astronomer, born in 1868, first began work on a project to determine the brightness of variable stars. This paved the way for her to discover the relationship between the period and the brightness of the variable Cepheid stars. This discovery was used (and is still used) by astronomers to accurately measure cosmic distance, known as the dependence of luminosity on the period.

3. Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Born in 1943 in Northern Ireland. She began her career as a scientific assistant to the astronomer Anthony Hewis. Jocelyn Bell Burnell took an important role in creating a huge (81.5 megahertz) radio telescope, which was subsequently used to track quasars. Jocelyn Bell is credited with the discovery of pulsars confirming the existence of rapidly rotating neutron stars.

In 2018, she was awarded the special prize "For a breakthrough in fundamental physics", amounting to $ 3 million. After the award ceremony, she donated the entire amount to help refugee students become physics researchers.

4. Ruby Payne-Scott

Ruby Payne-Scott was considered the world's first woman radio astronomer, and her astronomical career has always been fraught with great difficulties. Payne Scott was born in 1912 in New South Wales, Australia. With age, she showed great interest in mathematics and botany. After graduating from high school, she was able to win a couple of scholarships at the University of Sydney, where she studied the logic of mathematics, the chemical compositions of substances, the secrets of botany and the laws of physics.

After graduating from university, she continued to work in the research organization of the Australian Union for Scientific and Industrial Research, where she later focused on solar radio astronomy and discovered types I and III bursts. She also played an important role in detecting type II and type IV explosions. No matter how successful her career was, she was forced to save her marriage to Bill Hall, whom she married in 1944. 5 years later, when she finally left the agency, she gave birth to her first child, and also changed her last name and became Ruby Hall.

5. Eleanor Helin

Eleanor Globe Helin was an American astronomer who is known for her discovery (and joint discovery) of about 872 asteroids. Known for its discoveries are the asteroids Aten, 2062 Aten and 2100 Ra-Shalom. She was also the lady who discovered the Apollo group of asteroids: 4660 Nereus and 4769 Castalia. In addition, she also participated in the discovery of several comets, one of which is 111P / Helin-Roman-Crockett.

For more than 30 years, she has been actively involved in planetology and astronomy, in the jet engine laboratory and California Institute of Technology, where she launched a program called “Study of the intersection of planets with Palomar’s asteroids” (PCAS). The program has become the key to the discovery of several unique asteroids and comets around the world. Asteroid 3267 "Globe", crossing Mars, was named after her.

6. Carolyn Shoemaker

Carolyn Shoemaker is an American astronomer who discovered more than 30 comets and hundreds of asteroids. Born in 1929, studied at the Faculty of History, Political Science and English Literature. Then she married Eugene Shoemaker, a geologist who also became interested in astronomy. After college, she worked as a teacher in high school for a year, after which she left work to raise three children. Only after her children grew up and left the house, she found time to help her husband in the search for comets and asteroids.

It was during this time that she also worked as a professor of astronomy at the University of Northern Arizona. It was in 1993 that Carolyn, husband Eugene and comet hunter David Levy, discovered a comet that later became known as Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. It is known that pieces of the comet collided with the planet Jupiter in 1994, staging a spectacular show, sensational among astronomers. For all of her services in this field of science, Carolyn received many awards, including the James Craig Watson Medal in 1998 and the Scientist of the Year Award in 1995.

7. Maria Mitchell

American astronomer Maria Mitchell was born in 1818 in the United States. Known as the first professional female astronomer. Maria’s interest in astronomy came under the influence of her father, who instructed her to evaluate the timepieces for the Nantucket whaling fleet. At a time when women were not always able to conduct observations using telescopes, Mary was given the freedom to use and operate it. She was educated in Massachusetts and immediately after college worked as a librarian (and teacher) in the daytime, and at night she continued to observe the sky.

She later became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Her significant research took place in 1847, when she first established the orbit of a new comet, which was later known as Miss Mitchell's comet. After such a discovery, Danish King Frederick VI presented her with a gold medal - an award that was considered noteworthy for a woman in those days. She was also a pioneer in the daily photography of sunspots, which at that time were considered sunny clouds. It was this that led to the discovery that sunspots form on the surface of the Sun, and not in its atmosphere, in the form of clouds.

8. Amy Mainzner

American astronomer, born in 1974, she is known for her specialization in astrophysical instruments and infrared astronomy. Graduated with honors from Stanford University with a degree in Physics. She received a master's degree in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology, as well as a doctorate in astronomy from the University of California.

Amy discovered the asteroid 316201, which was later called by her "316201 Malala," or "2010 ML48"; Asteroid 316201, the name of which comes from Malala Yusafzai, a Pakistani woman who led an active life defending the girls' right to education. The diameter of this asteroid is 4 kilometers, and it makes a complete revolution around the Sun in 5.5 years.

9. Lyudmila Chernykh

Lyudmila, a native of Russia, is known for discovering small planets throughout her career. In 1959 she graduated from Irkutsk State Pedagogical University, then worked at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory and continued to work in the time and frequency laboratory of the All-Russian Research Institute of Physical, Technical and Radio Engineering Measurements in Irkutsk.

According to the Center for Small Planets, during the entire period of her career, Chernykh discovered 267 small planets, most of which were made together with her husband. Two of her most famous discoveries were: asteroid 2127 Tanya, named after Tanya Savicheva, a 14-year-old girl who did not survive the blockade of Leningrad and left a chronicle diary, as well as asteroid 2212 Hephaestus.

10. Vera Florence Cooper Rubin

American astronomer Vera Rubin was born in 1928 in Philadelphia, PA. It is known that she was a pioneer in the work related to the frequency of rotation of galaxies. She made the greatest contribution to astronomy by studying the rotation curves of the galaxy. She was able to detect the difference between the predicted angular motion of galaxies and the observed motion.

Vera also contributed to astronomy, a work proving the existence of a huge amount of dark matter in space.

Although most of her career was difficult because she was a woman, she was the first woman to be allowed to use the Hubble telescope in the 90s. It should also be noted that throughout her career she was very frank and always fought for gender equality in science. In 1993, she was awarded the National Science Medal for all her scientific achievements in astronomy.

11. Carolyn Porco

American astronomer Carolyn Porco was born in 1953 and is known for her knowledge of rings and satellites orbiting planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. She is also known for her exploration of the same planets that began in the 1980s with the help of the Voyager spacecraft.

She also leads the visualization team for the Cassini mission, which is currently in orbit on the planet Saturn.

Until now, its greatest discovery has been giant geysers of ice particles on the sixth largest satellite of the planet Saturn. This discovery indicates that there is water on the planet.

12. Nancy Grace Roman

American astronomer Nancy Roman was born in 1925 and began to study astronomy quite early. Long before women dared to dream of doing science, at the age of 11 she began to organize an astronomy club and became one of the best in this field.

After receiving her doctorate in astronomy from the University of Chicago, Roman became the first head of NASA's astronomy department. She was also the first woman to hold leadership positions in this organization.

Her main achievement was her participation in the planning and development of orbiting telescopes, including the famous Hubble telescope. In subsequent years, she was called the “Hubble Mother” for this contribution.

13. Margaret Geller

American astrophysicist Margaret Geller was born in 1947, is known for mapping the universe to an acceptable size. Although the universe can be huge, this did not stop her from reaching her goal, since throughout her career she sought to map everything that could be mapped onto it in space. In addition to being called the cartographer of the Universe, she also participated in the discovery of superfast stars.

14. Debra Ann Fisher

Debra Ann Fisher was born in 1953, later becoming a star researcher at Yale University. She and her team were able to discover many planets outside our solar system that revolve around other stars. When Debra discovered the first exoplanet, she had just finished graduate school. In her search for other worlds, she was also able to find similarities between our own and other planetary systems.

One such example is that other planetary systems also contain several planets. Over the years, she was also able to meet unique finds, one of which is a planet located in a binary star system. He teaches astronomy at Yale University, and is also engaged in research on the detection of exoplanets.

15. Jill Tarter

When a person grows, thoughts of the loneliness of mankind arise on his life path. From the very beginning of its existence, people have always been wondering if other life forms exist outside of our world. And while everyone was busy with their own affairs, Jill Tarter began to act and made the search for extraterrestrial life his career for life. She was director of the SETI Research Center; SETI is short for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

Although she had already retired without being able to contact anyone outside of our planet, her research for many decades helped current astronomers and scientists to continue this search for a possible life outside our planet.

And taking advantage of the fact that it's still March in the yard, I hasten to congratulate the beautiful half of the Habr resource on the past spring holiday!

I wish you good health, universal happiness, bright fun, endless luck and cosmic love! Always shine, because in all of us there is a particle of stellar matter, but in you there is a little more! And it is she, a piece of stars, that makes you so beautiful and irresistible! May it always shine from you, never fading, endowing everyone around you with your warmth and joy! Since March 8, lovely women and girls, albeit somewhat late!

Konstantin Radchenko, editor-in-chief of the Open Astronomy group.

15 women who have made a great contribution to astronomy