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Henrietta Leavitt: First Famous Woman Astronomer 

Leavitt was told women couldn't be astronomers,
but she was deaf and didn't hear that.
She went on to solve the biggest challenge in astronomy.

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Image #1

Henrietta Swan Leavitt at her desk at the Harvard Observatory




Henrietta Leavitt

Cepheid variable star

Image #2

A Cepheid variable star in galaxy M100. Below is a major part of M100, with a box around the region with the Cepheid. Above are 3 images of the boxed region taken at different times showing the Cepheid (circled) gradually brightening.

Image #3

Leavitt's discovery of a simple relationship between the period and luminosity of Type 1 Cepheids (yellow), Type 2 Cepheids (red) and RR Lyrae (blue) variable stars.
period and luminosity


Cepheid RR Pup
Image #4

Cepheid RR Pup has a period of 41 days. "Waves" of maximum brightness moving away from the star illuminate the surrounding gas; wave crests are 41 light-days apart. From the angle between the crests that we see on Earth sets the distance to RS Pup, 6500 light-years to a precision of almost 1%.


 

 

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