1. The women of astronomy
By Stacy Nguyen

2. 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.
Hydrometer- an instrument that measures the density of liquids

3. 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.

4. 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 M110 (NGC 205)
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
Suffered from childhood diseases that scarred her for life. Father told her she would never marry and her mother had her trained to become her maid.
Favorite brother Freidrich Wilhelm saved her and taught her music.
Later when Freidrich Wilhelm turned to astronomy, he made his sister be his assistant.
- M110 (NGC 205) – Messier 110 or The Edward Young Star is a dwarf elliptical galaxy
- Comets – One of which is the First Lady’s Comet

5. Williamina Fleming Part of the Harvard Computers
Discovered10 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
Harvard Computers: group of women who classified stars. Pickering hired them because they were cheaper than men. Plus the work was tedious. And Pickering was “frustrated with his male assistants and declared that even his maid could do a better job.” (

6. 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.
Award - or a lifetime of service to astronomy

7. 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.
University - first woman to graduate from the science faculty of Istanbul University
One of the first astronomers to study young stellar clusters using photometry.
Mildly active galaxies the structure of Open Clusters and Planetary Nebulae

8. Vera Rubin
By studying the galactic rotation curves, she uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted angular motion and the observed motion of galaxies
1970s, obtained the strongest evidence for dark matter during that time.
Has an asteroid named after her, the Asteroid Rubin
The Rubin-Ford effect is also named after her.
- Also known as the galaxy rotation problem

9. 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
1980s and 1990s she used film and a stereoscope to find objects that moved against the background of fixed stars.
- More than anyone alive

10. 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
President of a few societies including the Royal Astronomical Society (2002-4), the Institute of Physics ( ), Royal Society of Edinburgh (2014), and Pro Vice Chancellor of Trinity College Dublin (2013)
Nobel Prize in Physics – outraged many prominent astronomers.

11. Dr. Debra Fischer
Part of a team that discovered the first known multiple-planet system
Principal investigagor with the N2K Consortium, searching for extrasolar planets.
Primary investigator for Chiron.
2011, starts the Fiber-optic Improved Next- generation Doppler Search for Exo-Earths with the Planetary Society.
Extrasolar planets is a planet that orbits a different star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf

12. Sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamina_Fleming#Obituaries