Williamina Fleming, Scottish-American Astronomer

Williamina Fleming at Harvard College Observatory plate stacks, 1892. Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming (May 15, 1857 - May 21, 1911) was a Scottish-American astronomer. In 1881, Pickering hired Fleming to do clerical work at the observatory. While there, she devised and helped implement a system of assigning stars a letter according to how much hydrogen could be observed in their spectra. Stars classified as A had the most hydrogen, B the next most, and so on. She contributed to the cataloguing of stars that would be published as the Henry Draper Catalogue. In nine years, she catalogued more than 10, 000 stars. During her work, she discovered 59 gaseous nebulae, over 310 variable stars, and 10 novae. In 1907, she published a list of 222 variable stars she had discovered. In 1888, Fleming discovered the Horsehead Nebula on Harvard plate B2312. She was placed in charge of dozens of women hired to do mathematical classifications, and edited the observatory's publications. In 1899, Fleming was given the title of Curator of Astronomical Photographs. In 1906, she was made an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society of London, the first American woman to be so elected. She died of pneumonia in 1911 at the age of 54. Harvard University Archives

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12697587

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47706022

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Science Source/Mary Evans