amuseoffyre: theleiaskywalker:“In 1901, Harvard was a man’s world. But an astronomer named Edward
amuseoffyre: theleiaskywalker: “In 1901, Harvard was a man’s world. But an astronomer named Edward Charles Pickering broke that rule. He assembled a team of women to map and classify the types of stars. One of them provided the key to our understanding of the substance of the stars. And another devised a way for us to calculate the size of the universe.” COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014) written by Ann Druyan and Steven Soter Williamina Fleming was another of these ladies, a Scotswoman who started out as Pickering’s maid to earn a living after her husband abandoned her and their child. Pickering’s wife pointed out how bright she was and Pickering selected her to be one of the founding Harvard Computers. Among her discoveries were the Horsehead Nebula and the first recorded white dwarf star, and she published several volumes relating to her work. -- source link