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The Women Who Measured the Stars!

Over 100 years ago, three women astronomers overcame obstacles to follow their dreams and measure the stars. Join Rebecca Tulloch to learn how these women revolutionized the field of astronomy.

In the late 19th and early 20th Century Women Astronomers of the Harvard College Observatory calculated the distances, temperatures and composition of the stars. Facing many challenges including sexism from their male colleagues who's common belief was that women were not worthy of earning college degrees and could never achieve serious scientific accomplishments, Henrietta Swan Leavitt led the shift in astronomical understanding of the scale and understanding of the universe; Annie Jump Cannon was instrumental in the development of the first first serious attempt to organize and classify stars based on their temperatures and spectral types; and Cecilia Payne-Gaposhkin discovered that Stars were primarily composed of hydrogen and helium. Everyone has heard of Galileo and Newton, now it’s time to learn about the Women Who Measured the Stars.

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