After decades of being largely unrecognised for their work, female scientists and astronomers are being hailed for their brilliance.
Eighty-five years ago, several dozen eminent astronomers posed for a photograph outside the newly constructed McDonald Observatory near Fort Davis in Texas. All were men - with one exception. Half-concealed by a man in front of her, the face of a solitary woman can just be made out in the grainy black and white image. This is Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, whose impact on our understanding of the cosmos was profound. She showed stars were primarily made of hydrogen and helium, contradicting the scientific orthodoxy of the 1920s, which held that they were made of an array of elements.
In a new play, The Lightest Element, by Stella Feehily, now showing at the Hampstead Theatre, London, her work is being acclaimed. “Essentially she was up against a men’s club,” says Feehilly. “Astronomers, virtually all of them male, all agreed that the stars and the universe must be made of the same elements as we find on Earth. Being a woman and outside the group, she was free to be more radical in her thinking. She was right and they were wrong. The cosmos is 98 percent hydrogen and helium.”
Payne-Gaposchkin was not alone in being initially disparaged for being a female astronomer and only now being recognised for her brilliance. Annie Maunder and Alice Everett, who in the 19th century were among the first women to earn a living in astronomy, recently had asteroids named after them.
In addition, the biggest camera in the world - to be unveiled in Chile and used to image the entire visible sky every three to four nights beginning next year - has been named the Vera C Rubin Observatory. Rubin, who was American, played a critical role in revealing that our universe appears to be permeated with mysterious, undetectable particles. This is dark matter and it has played a key role in the evolution of the universe.
See more links to trailblazing women at base of page.
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