Astronomer Biography: Henrietta Leavitt

Henrietta Leavitt

Born in 1868 in Massachusetts, Henrietta Leavitt is often known as the forgotten astronomer. At the age of 20 Leavitt entered the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women, now known simply as Radcliffe. While there, she studied a wide variety of topics ranging from differential calculus to philosophy. Thanks to the largely male scientific community, entering her job at the Harvard College Observatory was very taxing, and she ended up with a position called a "computer" whose sole duty was to record the brightness of stars. Leavitt worked alongside other highly educated women who were known as the "Pickering's harem" after their supervisors often misogynistic and bigoted management practices. Despite her lack of recognition, Leavitt worked tirelessly on her research of Cepheid variables. Cepheid variables are stars that shift brightness and dimness over given periods. In 1912, during her vast amounts of research, Leavitt discovered that she was able to relate the period of a given star's brightness cycle to its absolute magnitude. This discovery made it possible to measure the distance of these objects from Earth. Leavitt's breakthrough allowed for many subsequent discoveries to be made, such as Edwin Hubble's assertion that the Andromeda spiral nebula is really not at the edge of our galaxy but nearly 1 million lightyears away, or the method of the parallax measurement of Cepheid variables. Despite this integral contribution to modern astronomy, Leavitt was not given appropriate accolades or credit for her work. Pickering, her supervisor, published her findings under his own name, claiming it was his given right guaranteed by his superiority. Little is known about Leavitt's personal life or her feelings about her lack of recognition. This complacency and timidity was characteristic of well-educated women at the time. A rare breed, they were often shut away by their male peers and very rarely given a real voice in academia. Leavitt died quietly in 1921.

http://www.aavso.org/henrietta-leavitt-%E2%80%93-celebrating-forgotten-astronomer
http://cosmology.carnegiescience.edu/timeline/1912

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Pictured here is the Polar Ring Galaxy, found in the constellation Ursa Major. It contains stars, gas, and dust orbiting in rings perpendicular to a flat plane, which is a configuration very rarely found in our universe. This composition suggests that the galaxy is extremely old and very stable. In total, the galaxy is approximately 50,000 light years away and about 40 million light years form Earth. 

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Shown here is the center of the Rosette Nebula, found in the constellation Monoceros. The red shades are caused by sulfur, the blue by oxygen, and the green by hydrogen. The center is about 50 light years across and is nearly 4,500 light years from Earth. 

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Shown here is the Aurora over Iceland, and the constellation Orion seen just to left of the fantastic aurora. These auroras are caused by particles from the sun interacting with the magnetic field of Earth. The excess protons and electrons in Earth's atmosphere interacts with the magnetic field and creates lights such as these. The green light comes from oxygen molecules returning to ground state after interaction with an excited electron.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

The equinox took place on March 20th, which marks the first day of spring. The photo shows the position of the sun in the sky over Poland from March 1, 2013 to March 1, 2014. These analemmas were captured over one year with a pinhole camera by making one one minute exposure per day. 

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Shown here is the Orion Nebula. It is located about 1600 lightyears away from Earth and is opaque to visible light due to the vast amounts of dust surrounding it. This dust is created by cool stars and expelled outside the nebula by particle wind. Over the next few million years, this dust will be dispersed by stars now in formation.