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