Afternoon Keynote Speaker

	2002 Conference Summary April 18-19, 2002

Afternoon Keynote Speaker Discusses Women in Astronomy

Dr. Tina Riedinger closed the 2002 WIST Conference by acknowledging the significant contributions made by women in the field of astronomy. Vera Rubin was first to discover that 90% of the mass in the universe does not shine—it’s invisible Dark Matter. We can only see 10% of the universe, but we know there is something else there because of the way it is affected by gravity. As we enter the 21^st century, the number one question remains, “What is that Dark Matter that makes up most of the universe? Maria Mitchell was the first woman to have a comet named for her. Without a college degree, she became the head of the physics and astronomy department at the newly formed Vassar College. Several prominent women astronomers began careers working as one of a team of women “calculators” hired by Edward Pickering at Harvard University Observatory in the early 1900s. Annie Cannon, one of these tabulators completed the spectral analysis of half a million stars and developed a classification method for this work. Cecilia Payne, one of Cannon’s students, was the first person to receive a doctorate in astronomy from Harvard University. She took the spectral lines and analyzed what they meant physically to determine the chemical composition of stars. Another astronomer, Henrietta Leavitt determined that pulsating stars could be used to calculate the distance of the galaxies. The field of cosmology has determined three solid facts: The sky is dark at night; therefore there is a limit to the observable universe. Red shifts of galaxies show that the universe is expanding and galaxies are all moving away from each other. Cosmic background radiation comes to any point from every direction equally, so the universe does not have a center. Today women astronomers continue to contribute to the field as data is rapidly coming in from the Hubble Telescope and from radio telescopes. Astronomer Margaret Geller heads a project to map the entire universe. Carolyn Shoemaker teamed with her husband, Eugene, and David Levy in discovering about a dozen comets. There is lots of opportunity for the future contributions of women in astronomy.