Our first assignment of the semester was basically a mini research project. I chose to research Henrietta Swan Leavitt.
Henrietta was born in July of 1868. She didn’t discover her love of astronomy until her senior year of college. However shortly after her graduation she had to take time off of her studies because she came down with an illness that resulted in her going completely deaf. She came back strong and volunteered at the Harvard University Observatory beginning in 1895. Due to her sex she was only paid 30 cents an hour which many people look back at now and completely disagree with her payment. She is known as one of the brightest minds in the entire field for the time. It was because of her that astronomers are able to measure the distance of stars to Earth. She came up with the idea of cepheid variable period-luminosity. Which allowed astronomers to chart the brightness of stars (hence my punny title of this post) and therefore examine their distance.
Henrietta’s discoveries allowed Edwin Hubble to discover that galaxies are constantly expanding. And he believed that her work deserved the Nobel prize. Sadly, she was almost nominated until the people realized she had passed away from cancer three years earlier. She died in 1921 but her work is still used today. Astronomers give her full credit for their ability to measure any distance of galaxies and or stars today. She also helped discover 2,400 stars which were half of what existed in her life. Henrietta’s biggest problems were her health and her treatment in her work place. She was payed minimally and was not given any recognition or awards during her life. Because of her work she made majority of astronomy discoveries of the 19th and 20th centuries possible.
Sources I used to research:
https://cosmology.carnegiescience.edu/timeline/1912
laughing my way out of awkward situations 
Hey! So your lucky post was one of the three that caught my eye. 🙂 There is a few likely reasons for this, one being that I recognized some names in the post from the infamous physics classroom. Especially Edward Hubble, who developed Hubble’s Law, which is… Well… I forgot. But there was another point that also made me stop and think, and luckily it was a thought I was actually able to somewhat complete. You mentioned some of the struggles that Henrietta Swan Leavitt faced, including her hearing impairment, as well as discrimination for her gender. Yet she continued. And now her name is associated with some of the most famous science names ever. Her perseverance is absolutely astounding. I tend to have the urge to give up if I make one bad grade, and I have never even had any physical impairment or faced any awful discrimination. Her drive and passion for her work is so motivating to me, and stories like these are the ones taht drag me out of bed every morning and force me to try again on the next test. Anyways, I liked the points you included on your post.
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