Cross-post: The Forgotten Star of Radio Astronomy

By Samia Bouzid, Carol Sutton Lewis & the Lost Women of Science Initiative

Ruby Payne-Scott (1912-1981)
Image Credit: Hall family collection

Australian physicist Ruby Payne-Scott helped lay the groundwork for a whole new kind of astronomy: radio astronomy. By scanning the skies for radio waves instead of the light waves that we can see with our eyes, Payne-Scott and her colleagues opened a new window into the universe and transformed the way we explore it. But to keep her job as a woman working for the Australian government in the 1940s, Payne-Scott had to keep a pretty big secret.

Read more and listen to the podcast at

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-forgotten-star-of-radio-astronomy/

Learn more about Ruby's contributions at

https://csiropedia.csiro.au/radar-and-the-birth-of-radio-astronomy-in-australia-at-collaroy-plateau/