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Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming is a Scottish astronomer born on May 15, 1857. In 1910, Williamina discovered the first white dwarf star. Along with this star, she found more than 50 nebulae, 10 novae, and over 300 variable stars. -
Born on December 16, 1857, you could argue that Edward Emerson Barnard is one of the greatest visual observers ever. He discovered 17 comets, and the last comet discovered was the first discovered through photography. In 1916, at Yerkes Observatory, he discovered a star due to it's signifcant movement--now known as Barnard's Star. Additionally, he is credited for his extraordinary work involving the Milky Way and its design. -
Born on February 4th, 1906, in Illinois, Clyde William Tombaugh went on to be one of the greatest astronomers of our time. His work at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, led to his discovery of the dwarf planet Pluto--at only 24 years old--as well as hundreds of asteroids, stars, and two comets. -
Another English astronomer, Fred Hoyle, was born on June 24, 1915. He was known for his theory of stellar nucleosynthesis. In 1946, he was the first to write about this process, and in 1954, he produced a groundbreaking publication on the theory. While he did not embrace the Big Bang theory, he was the first to coin the term on a BBC radio program in 1949. -
On May 10, 1900, Cecilia was born in Buckinghamshire, England. In 1925, she was the first person to graduate with a PhD in Astronomy from Radcliffe College. In 1956, she was appointed Chair of the Astronomy Department at Harvard University, becoming not only the first woman to head a department at Harvard, but also the first woman promoted to full professor in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences.