Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2018
Volume 63, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, April 14–17, 2018; Columbus, Ohio
Session U07: History of Women Pioneers in AstronomyInvited Undergraduate
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Sponsoring Units: DAP FHP Chair: Priyamvada Natarajan, Yale University Room: B131-132 |
Monday, April 16, 2018 3:30PM - 4:06PM |
U07.00001: Henrietta Leavitt, Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin and the women of Harvard Observatory Invited Speaker: Dava Sobel In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Harvard College Observatory provided unusual employment opportunities for a large number of women. At first their job title was computer or assistant, but in time several graduated to astronomer and made important contributions to the field. Henrietta Leavitt, for example, noticed the relation of periodicity to brightness among Cepheid variable stars that became the basis for interstellar and intergalactic distance scales. Cecilia Payne (later Gaposchkin) took advantage of a fellowship to leave Cambridge, England for Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she became the first person to earn a doctorate in astronomy from Harvard University. Her dissertation gave the first indication that stars consist primarily of hydrogen. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 16, 2018 4:06PM - 4:42PM |
U07.00002: Henrietta Leavitt, Pioneer in measuring the distances to the stars Invited Speaker: Alan Paige Lightman Henrietta Leavitt, one of the so-called women “computers” working at the Harvard College Observatory in the early twentieth century, pioneered a new and extremely important method of measuring the distances to the stars. Nearly deaf, poorly paid, and receiving very little recognition in her lifetime, Leavitt’s distance-determination method was used by other astronomers to measure the size of the Milly Way, to measure the distances to other galaxies, and to conclude that our universe is expanding, a conclusion central to the Big Bang model. The importance of Leavitt’s work to astronomy, physics, and a conception of our cosmic origins cannot be overstated. In this talk, I will discuss the life of Leavitt, her work, and her importance to science. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 16, 2018 4:42PM - 5:18PM |
U07.00003: Cepheids and the Distance Ladder today Invited Speaker: Adam Riess |
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