Introduction
Throughout the centuries, women have been fighting for equal rights with men. However, the truth is that females only gained the majority of their rights in the twentieth century, and such a state of affairs was accepted as the norm until then. In the early years of astronomical discoveries, women mostly worked as assistants to men, who then took on a leadership role in scientific works and projects. Miss Leavitt’s Stars is a wonderful reminder of how far women have come in this matter. Even though females were not permitted to participate in scientific astronomical experiments, they have made significant contributions to the study of space.
Miss Leavitt’s Stars
Miss Leavitt’s Stars is a book published by George Jonson, a science writer who partially dedicated his work to Henrietta Swan Leavitt. The author emphasized that the story is barely a biography of a prominent female astronomer, but rather a summary of her scientific findings. An American astronomer, born in 1868, first began work on a project to determine the brightness of variable stars (Jonson, 2005). This marked the beginning of her exploration of the connection between time and the Cepheid variable stars’ luminosity. This discovery was used (and is still used) by astronomers to accurately measure the cosmic distance, also known as the dependence of luminosity on the period.
The author described how her career path began at the Harvard College Observatory, where she worked as a “living computer.” Leavitt became part of a group of attentive and diligent women who processed a huge amount of data live, whereas today, computers do this job (Jonson, 2005). Leavitt systematized a catalog of images of stars on photographic plates, determining their brightness in stellar magnitudes. The study of photographic plates led Leavitt to an innovative theory, developed by her at a time when she was working for ten and a half dollars a week (Jonson, 2005). Her research became the basis for the most important of the works of astronomer Edwin Hubble. Even though Leavitt’s discovery of the luminosity of Cepheid variable stars and period drastically impacted the field of astronomy, she has never received any public acknowledgment.
In addition, Jonson emphasized her role in solving the fundamental problem in astronomy-related to distance measurements because the scale of the universe was immeasurable. The tool based on stars’ luminosity that she developed could assist astronomers while evaluating the distance between the planets and stars (Jonson, 2005). Leavitt could determine the variable stars and uncovered more than 2,400 of them (Jonson, 2005). Her discovery of Cepheid also proved that space was constantly expanding and served as a theoretical justification for the fact that the Big Bang marked the beginning of the universe.
It has been claimed that women and science are incompatible and that only men could make any significant scientific contribution. However, the last century was a period of technological breakthroughs and half of them were created by women, who, unfortunately, did not become recognizable in society. Gender bias was widespread because a female was regarded as a hearth keeper and a mother who was expected to care for her family. As for astronomy, women were not even allowed to operate telescopes until the first few years of the 20th century (Jonson, 2005). For instance, Henrietta could not even choose a topic for independent research because the head of the observatory did not value her employees enough to allow them such liberties.
Although the first wave of feminism helped dissipate the gender disparities in accessing education, it did not utterly solve the issue of women’s confinement to specific occupations, such as assistants or nurses. In the meantime, men could be researchers or surgeons; that is, they had leading positions. However, gender parity became a reality after a second wave of feminism, which occurred after several women succeeded in launching eminent pieces of research.
What surprised me the most was how audacious and confident Leavitt was. Her ability to measure the distance by photographing the celestial objects manually is proof that there is nothing impossible. What is more, Leavitt’s discoveries are still used in modern astrology: her Cepheid variables make it possible to measure distances up to 20 million light-years and even more with the development of new advances. Ultimately, her ideas are now implemented in exploring the sizes of the universe and the influence of variable stars on the distance between the planets.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Henrietta Swan Leavitt was an inspiration to George Jonson, who managed to incorporate her story into his book Miss Leavitt’s Stars. In different fields of science, women have played an important role, in this case, in astronomy. Despite being frequently overlooked, females made numerous important discoveries in different areas. For example, Henrietta Leavitt introduced the Cepheid theory, which allows for measuring the distance between stars and planets. Levitt’s breakthrough of appraising distances using intergalactic scale has become prominent in terms of perceiving the structure and size of the universe.
Reference
Jonson, G. (2005). Miss Leavitt’s Stars. W.W. Norton.