DEI Collab: Space Women
Men of old have been credited, mostly, for the original discoveries of objects in space. These discoveries have shaped how we view science and space and we often laud those men for being the sole brilliant scientists. Therefore, they require no more page-space here; I want to use this space, instead, to recognize two brilliant scientists - two women named Henrietta Swan Leavitt and Jocelyn Bell Burnell who have by-and-large revolutionized astronomy. Without their contributions, we would be years if not decades behind where we are today.
Henrietta Swan Leavitt - In the early 1900’s, there were no modern computers to do math. Research facilities had to employ cohorts of people to do manual, tedious calculations of data. The field of astronomy was notorious for its use of human computers because of the intense and lengthy mathematics required to do science. Many organizations such as NASA and research colleges like Harvard utilized groups of women to do these calculations; one such group’s legacy was captured in the film “Hidden Figures” in which women made a great impact on the breakthrough science NASA was pursuing. While this is an amazing attempt to remember amazing people, at the time, many human computers were forgotten and overlooked. Henrietta was one such computer who unfortunately passed without knowing the impact that her work in astronomy would have.
To measure distances to far objects in space, it’s helpful to have a fixed reference point - something that we know the distance to that can put other objects into perspective - much like a landmark in a city. Prior to the early 1900s, there was no formal way to do so. It was only when Henrietta Swan Leavitt, a computer at Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge, discovered what we now know as cepheid variable stars that we began to understand the scale of the universe.
Cepheid variable stars are stars that vary in brightness; they get predictably dimmer and brighter. Comparing their changing brightness to the brightness we observe on earth we can measure their distance. Henrietta discovered that we can use these stars, along with a geometric technique to measure distance called parallax, to determine the distance to objects far away. This technique is seen firsthand in this Hubble Space Telescope project where researchers use cepheid variable stars to make sense of universal expansion. Without Henrietta’s research this would not have been possible.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell - On August 6, 1967, it was observed that there was strange data coming through radio observations from a newly built telescope at Cambridge. The advisor to the project was convinced that the readings were from some artificial source - one made by intelligent creatures; he went on to name the strange data LGM-1 which stands for “Little Green Men 1.” However, the graduate student who built the telescope that observed this data and for months prior disagreed; her name was Jocelyn Bell Burnell and, after studying the data and finding similar data in other celestial readings, she discovered what we now know as pulsars.
Pulsars are highly magnetized objects called neutron stars. They’re anomalies of physics and are recognized by their “pulsating” appearance: like a cosmic strobe light. They emit large amounts of x-rays. Pulsars are important not only in study of magnetism and stellar death but are also used to measure distance and find unseen objects.
Much like cepheid variable stars discovered by Henrietta, Jocelyn’s pulsars can be used to measure distance to objects and find unseen objects. Both of these facts are based off of the observation that pulsars pulse light in a predictable way. Using this, if something gets in front of the pulses and we detect a change in the amount of light we can find some unseen objects. In fact, the first exoplanet was discovered using this method. We may also measure the pulses and slight shifts in pulse timing to measure how far or close the pulsar is. Using this method we can measure farther objects in space than we could otherwise. Jocelyn’s discovery has provided astronomy with a way to see farther into the universe and find smaller objects - potentially objects capable of harboring life.
References:
Improved hubble yardstick gives fresh evidence for new physics in the universe. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2021, from https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2018/news-2018-12.html2.
Howell, E. (2016, November 12). Henrietta Swan LEAVITT: Discovered how to measure Stellar DISTANCES. Retrieved April 21,2021, from https://www.space.com/34708-henrietta-swan-leavitt-biography.html3.
Wolszczan, A., & Frail, D. (n.d.). A planetary system around the millisecond pulsar PSR1257 + 12. Retrieved April 21, 2021, from https://www.nature.com/articles/355145a04.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell. (2019, September 17). Retrieved April 21, 2021, from https://shethoughtit.ilcml.com/biography/jocelyn-bell-burnell/.
