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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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Broadcast
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Image
#1
Henrietta Swan Leavitt at
her desk at the Harvard Observatory
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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.
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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.
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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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