Henrietta Swan Leavitt
4 July 1868 – 12 December 1921
Henrietta Swan Leavitt was an American astronomer who worked at the Harvard College Observatory. Her discovery of the period-luminosity relationship of Cepheid variable stars provided the first standard candle for measuring cosmic distances, enabling later determinations of the scale of the universe.
Lived at the same time
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Life events
Henrietta Swan Leavitt was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgShe earned her degree from the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women, later Radcliffe College.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgShe began working as a volunteer computer at the Harvard College Observatory under Edward Charles Pickering.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgShe was given a permanent position at the observatory and eventually headed the department of photographic photometry.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgShe published findings on variable stars observed in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgShe established that the luminosity of Cepheid variable stars correlates with their pulsation period, creating a key standard candle for cosmic distances.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgShe died of cancer in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Source: en.wikipedia.org