THE WOMEN OF ASTRONOMY By Stacy Nguyen HYPATIA

THE WOMEN OF ASTRONOMY By Stacy Nguyen

HYPATIA OF ALEXANDRIA • Born around 350 or 370 AD in Alexandria, Egypt • First mathematician and astronomer • Around 400 AD, she became the head of the Platonist school in • Charted celestial bodies and invented the hydrometer. http: //armstrongdelusion. files. wordpress. com/2011/07/hypatia. jpg

NICOLE-REINE LEPAUTE • 1762, successfully predicted the exact time and extent of a solar eclipse that was due in 1764 • 1759 correctly predicted the return of Halley ’s Comet • Calculated how the gravitational effect of the planets would influence the comet’s path with her colleagues Alexis Clairault and Jerome Lalande. • Has a an asteroid named after her, asteroid 7720 Lepaute • Also has a lunar crater named after her, the lunar crater Lepaute. http: //www. robertopascua. com/2012/01/nicole-reine-etable-de-la-briere-lepaute-1723 -1788/

CAROLINE HERSCHEL • The Cinderella of astronomy • One of six children • Father gave her a basic education despite the mother’s disapproval • Never memorized her multiplication tables but did the complicated formulas from her brother’s observations • Around 1783 and 1787 discovers M 110 (NGC 205) • 1786 -97 discovered eight comets and rediscovered Comet Encke in 1795 • Continues working in astronomy even after her brother’s death • Awarded the Gold Medal in 1828 • 1835 became an honoury member of the society https: //blog. digilentinc. com/index. php/tag/caroline-herschel/

WILLIAMINA FLEMING • Part of the Harvard Computers • Discovered 10 novae, 52 nebulae, and 310 variable stars • One of the nebulae she discovered was the Horseshead Nebula in 1888. • Accepted in the Royal Astronomical Society in 1906 • Discovered White Dwarfs in 1910 http: //apod. nasa. gov/apod/ap 130422. html http: //cienciaes. com/neutrino/2012/02/09/williamina-fleming-de-criada-a-astronoma/

DORRIT HOFFLEIT • Author of the Bright Star Catalogue • Co-authored The General Catalogue of Tirgonametric Stellar Parallaxes • 1988, awarded the George Van Biesbroeck Prize by the American Astronomical Society. • Helped and encouraged many young women to pursue astronomer. • Oldest astronomer to have ever lived. http: //selfrescuingprincesssociety. blogspot. com/2013/03/happy-birthday-dr-dorrit-hoffleit. html

PARIS PIŞMIŞ • A Turkish Astronomer of Armenian descent • One of the first women to attend a university in Turkey • Discovered 20 Open Clusters and 3 Globular Clusters • Also studied kinematics in mildly active galaxies, HII nebulae. http: //aas. org/obituaries/paris-marie-pi%C 5%9 Fmi%C 5%9 F-1911 -1999

VERA RUBIN • By studying the galactic rotation curves, she uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted angular motion and the observed motion of galaxies • 1970 s, obtained the strongest evidence for dark matter during that time. • Has an asteroid named after her, the Asteroid 5726 Rubin • The Rubin-Ford effect is also named after her. http: //www. phys-astro. sonoma. edu/brucemedalists/rubin/

CAROLYN SHOEMAKER • Discovered 32 comets and over 300 asteroids in her lifetime • Co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 • 1980, Starts her astronomical career searching for asteroids and comets that crossed Earth • 1980 s and 1990 s she used film and a stereoscope to find objects that moved against the background of fixed stars. http: //www. csuchico. edu/pub/inside/archive/01_05_10/02. graduation. html

JOCELYN BELL BURNELL • Discovers radio pulsars in 1967 • Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle ended up getting the Nobel Prize in Physics for it, excluding Jocelyn Bell http: //www. spscongress. org/physconprogram/speakers/intoct 08 p 5 -jocelyn-2/ • President of a few societies including the Royal Astronomical Society (20024), the Institute of Physics (2008 -10), Royal Society of Edinburgh (2014), and Pro Vice Chancellor of Trinity College Dublin (2013)

DR. DEBRA FISCHER • Part of a team that discovered the first known multiple-planet system • Principal investigagor with the N 2 K Consortium, searching for extrasolar planets. • Primary investigator for Chiron. • 2011, starts the Fiber-optic Improved Nextgeneration Doppler Search for Exo-Earths with the Planetary Society. http: //sites. psu. edu/ncuwip/speakers/

SOURCES • • • http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Williamina_Fleming#Obituaries http: //www. ranker. com/list/famous-female-astronomers/reference? page=1 http: //www. womanastronomer. com/women_astronomers. htm http: //www. physics. uc. edu/~sitko/astrowomen. html http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Harvard_Computers http: //www. sheisanastronomer. org/ http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Messier_110 http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Jocelyn_Bell_Burnell http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Vera_Rubin http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Debra_Fischer http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Carolyn_S. _Shoemaker