The Role of Women in Astronomy Right Here in Huntsville.
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Transcript of The Role of Women in Astronomy Right Here in Huntsville.
The Role of Women in Astronomy
Right Here in Huntsville
Aganice of Thessaly•Greece, 2nd c BCE
•Mentioned in writing of Plutarch, Appolonius of Rhodes
•Sorceress: could make the moon disappear from the sky
Hypatia of Alexandria ~355 – 415 CE
Mathematician, philosopher and astronomer. Father Theon: last director of “Museum of Alexandria”
Hypatia of Alexandria
•Mathematical writings included commentary on the works of Diophantes (father of Algebra)
•Probably invented the astrolabe
•Planisphere
•Navigational
Hypatia’s famous student
Synesius of Cyrene (Bishop of Ptolemais)
Caroline Herschel
•Germany, 1750-1848
•Left behind: Cinderella
•Famous brother William
Caroline Herschel
•Brother, Freidrich Wilhelm, later known as William brought her to England and trained her as his assistant.
•Helped her brother with the discovery of Uranus
Caroline Herschel• Became famous in
her own right too as an astronomer (and opera singer!)
• In 1786, discovered the first of many comets (known as Herschel’s Comet), and 3 nebulae prior to that
• Was William’s official paid assistant by King George III
Harvard “Computers”
•Harvard College Observatory, founded 1839•1877: Pickering’ s housekeeper better at math . . .
Harvard “Computers”
Paid $0.25/hour!Included some famous names:
Henrietta Leavitt
Annie Jump Cannon
Henrietta Leavitt•Research assistant at Harvard College Observatory.Devised a system, using “the north polar sequence” as a gage of brightness for stars• Cepheid variables in SMC – period-luminosity relationship of these variables, •Determine distances of stars
Ejnar Hertzsprung used her discovery to plot the distance of stars; Harlow Shapley used it to measure the size of the Milky Way; and Edwin Hubble used her work to ascertain the age of
the Universe.
Annie Jump Cannon
•Deaf due to scarlet fever
•Classified stars according to their spectra from coolest to warmest
•Invented/refined Harvard Spectral Classification System:
OBAFGKM
Jocelyn Bell-Burnell
•1967: radio pulses = “LGM-1”
•Turned out to not be aliens!
•Rather, pulsars - jets from accreting material on neutron stars!
“A woman’s place is in the dome” –
Marylou West•http://www.womanastronomer.com