Antonia Maury

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Antonia Maury

Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Maury (* 21st March 1866 in Cold Spring-on-Hudson , New York ; † 8. January 1952 in Dobbs Ferry , New York) was an American astronomer who a significant early catalog for star classification published . Maury belonged to the so-called "Harvard Computers", a group of astronomers and " calculators " at the Harvard College Observatory . She was the winner of the Annie Jump Cannon Prize for Astronomy in 1943.

Life

Maury was the eldest of three children from Mytton Maury and Virginia Draper. Her first names come from Portuguese and she was named in honor of her maternal grandmother Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Gardner Draper. Maury was the granddaughter of John William Draper and a niece of Henry Draper , both pioneering astronomers. The latter photographed in 1872 first successfully spectrum of a star Vega . Antonia and her two siblings Carlotta Joaquina Maury and William Draper came into contact with science at a young age.

Astronomer and historian Dorrit Hoffleit noted that when Antonia entered Vassar College , she "was probably better prepared for science than any other student".

Antonia Maury studied at Vassar College under the guidance of the renowned astronomer Maria Mitchell and graduated in physics, astronomy and philosophy in 1887 with honors.

From 1888 she worked at the Harvard College Observatory (HCO), where she studied stellar spectra . Her first task for Edward Charles Pickering (director of the HCO at the time) was to determine the orbital period of Mizar - scientifically Zeta Ursae Majoris - which was the first spectroscopic double star recognized by Pickering in 1887 .

In 1889 Maury discovered the second spectroscopic binary star Menkalinan - scientifically Beta Aurigae - and determined its orbital period. It was the first to calculate the orbits and periods of revolution of these first two spectroscopic binary stars. Spectroscopic binary stars are so closely spaced that even the largest telescopes do not have enough resolution to distinguish them directly. They only "reveal" themselves through differences in the spectrum, because when the stars revolve around one another, a Doppler effect occurs, whereby their spectral lines shift periodically.

In 1897 she published a catalog of classifications. However, Pickering disagreed with her system of classification and explanation of different line widths, and she left the HCO in early 1892.

In contrast, the Danish astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung recognized the importance of their classifications and used their system to differentiate in his system between giant stars and dwarf stars , which had hardly differed in terms of surface temperature. According to Hertzsprung, “In my opinion the separation of Antonia C. Maury of the c- and ac-stars is the most important advancement in stellar classification since the trials by Vogel and Secchi ... To neglect the c-properties in classifying stellar spectra , I think, is nearly the same thing as if a zoologist, who has detected the deciding differences between a whale and a fish, would continue classifying them together. "

In 1908 Maury returned to the HCO and stayed there for several years. In 1933 she published the spectroscopic analysis of the binary star Beta Lyrae .

The lunar crater Maury on the lunar front was first named after her cousin, oceanographer Matthew Fontaine Maury , and later shared in her honor, making it believed to be the only lunar crater named after a pair of cousins.

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Vassar encyclopedia on Antonia Maury
  2. ^ AC Maury, EC Pickering: Spectra of bright stars photographed with the 11-inch Draper Telescope as part of the Henry Draper Memorial. In: Annals of Harvard College Observatory . tape 28 , 1897, pp. 1–128 , bibcode : 1897AnHar..28 .... 1M (English).
  3. D. Sobel: The glass universe. How women discovered the stars. 2017, p. 81-82 .
  4. ^ AC Maury, H. Shapley: The Spectral Changes of Beta Lyrae . In: Annals of Harvard College Observatory . tape 84 , no. 8 , 1933, pp. 207–255 , bibcode : 1933AnHar..84..207M (English).