Celebrate Dr. Vera Rubin at the Rubin Town Hall at the 246 AAS Meeting

Call For Panelists

The 246th AAS Meeting will be held June 8-12 in Anchorage, Alaska. The Rubin Town Hall will be held on June 12 to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Vera Rubin. 

Are you attending the 246th AAS Meeting? The Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy is looking for members who would like to be panelists for this event. Selected panelists will participate in a 1-hour panel. 

Let's take the opportunity to celebrate the legacy that Dr. Vera Rubin left to astronomy and cosmology.

If you're interested in being a panel member or simply sharing a story or a remembrance of Dr. Rubin, please contact us or Kim Arcand. We would love to have your participation.

As part of this celebration, the U.S. Mint will showcase the newly released Vera Rubin quarter, part of the American Women Quarters Set 2025. 

More information about the Rubin Town Hall:

Rubin Town Hall at the 246th AAS

June 8-12 

Anchorage, Alaska

Day/time TBD (likely Thursday, June 12, afternoon)

SESSION ID #:  46  (1 hour)

Come join us in celebrating the groundbreaking scientific achievements and enduring legacy of Dr. Vera Rubin, whose work provided the first compelling evidence for dark matter, fundamentally altering our understanding of the universe.  Vera Rubin was a leading figure in observational cosmology whose critical observations of galaxy rotation curves led to one of the most profound discoveries in modern astrophysics, reshaped our understanding of galactic dynamics and laid the foundation for research that continues today, including the first direct evidence of dark matter from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and now, new studies at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Rubin was a lifelong advocate as well, mentoring generations of astronomers and advocating for greater participation in the field.  In this one-hour panel discussion, we will honor Vera Rubin’s scientific contributions and advocacy, highlight ongoing research with missions and scientists that build on her discoveries, and foster dialogue on science, history, and public engagement.  The U.S. Mint will showcase newly released Vera Rubin coins.

This event is hosted by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory/Chandra X-ray Observatory and AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy.

You can register for the 246th AAS Meeting at aas.org and find the full schedule of events on the website. We look forward to celebrating Dr. Vera Rubin with you at the Rubin Town Hall.

Illustration Credit: NASA/XC/SAO/K.Divona

Emily Calandrelli: 100th Woman in Space

On November 24, 2024, Emily Calandrelli, an aerospace engineer and popular science communicator, became the 100th woman to reach space. Calandrelli joined five other passengers on Blue Origin’s ninth space tourism flight. Blue Origin streamed the launch and Calandrelli’s reaction, which brought hundreds of supportive comments online, but Calandrelli also received some toxic and sexist comments disparaging her response.

Seeing our planet for the first time, a dream decades in the making.

You’re seeing so many emotions intertwined. Excitement, awe, and pride - but to be honest a little fear and confusion too. You just launched on a rocket and you’re seeing something you’ve never seen before… pic.twitter.com/HlL85ENshC

— Emily Calandrelli (@TheSpaceGal) November 25, 2024

Calandrelli received degrees in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of West Virginia. She then attended MIT and earned master’s degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics and Technology and Policy in 2013. Calandrelli also interned at NASA. 

Since 2013, Calandrelli has worked as a science communicator, advocating for STEM education, particularly for girls, through various media. She is the host of Xploration Outer Space, part of Fox’s Xploration Station, which targets pre-teens and teens with mainly STEM-based programs. Calandrelli had already filmed YouTube videos with the engineering department at the University of West Virginia and had a growing online following as The Space Gal on her social media channels when Fox tapped her to host the program.

Calandrelli also pursued writing with Ada Lace, a STEM adventure series for kids. This six-book series follows 8-year-old Ada Lace as she uses science to solve problems. Calandrelli has also written a picture book, Reach For The Stars, and two science experiment books for kids. 

In 2020, Calandrelli took her passion for STEM education a step further. She pitched the idea for a children’s science show to Netflix and the company picked up the show. Calandrelli, who was pregnant with her first child, got to choose whether she wanted to film the series pregnant or wait until after delivery. The science communicator took the opportunity to film the entire series of Emily’s  Wonder Lab while 36 weeks pregnant.

In an interview with Parentaly, Calandrelli said, “On TV, you don’t usually see someone who is pregnant doing something other than being an expectant mother - or hiding it.” While the show wasn’t renewed for a second season, it still ranks high on Netflix’s list of shows. 

Calandrelli has continued to support STEM education and careers for girls and women through her YouTube channel, recently launching Emily’s Science Lab, where she demonstrates science experiments for kids. Calandrelli also maintains active social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, and Bluesky, where she reaches several million followers as The Space Gal.

When Calandrelli traveled past the Kármán line in November, fulfilling a long-held dream to travel to space, she posted her reactions online, despite the risk of all-too-familiar disparaging comments from internet trolls.  Calandrelli posted on Instagram, “I refuse to give much time to the small men on the internet.” Instead, she continues to focus her efforts on advocating for STEM and space exploration for all, particularly for girls and women.

Find out more about Emily Calandrelli at thespacegal.com. 

Celebrating the Pioneering Women of Astronomy and Space Exploration

By Nicolle Zellner, co-Chair of the CSWA

We stand on the shoulders of giants! March is Women's History Month, and this blog has honored women in science with multiple posts. It's hard to forget the pioneering work of those early female astronomers who worked as computers at the turn of the 20th Century, whether in the United States at Harvard or abroad at the Vatican. 

Sisters Emilia Ponzoni, Regina Colombo, Concetta Finardi and Luigia Panceri mapped
the positions and brightness of 481,215 stars for the Vatican. Photo Credit: On Being (Flickr)

Other women tested the limits of aviation and space flight. Bessie Coleman, Jackie Cochran, Valentina Tereshkova, Sally Ride, Mae Jamison, Ellen Ochoa, and Eileen Collins flew fast, long, and high—breaking the air and space ceilings for all of us. Wally Funk, an original First Lady Astronaut Trainee, became the oldest woman to fly in space in July 2021. The next people on the Moon will include the first woman and the first person of color. Perhaps the final frontier really will be for everyone.

Bessie Coleman "dared to dream".
Photo credit: Alamy

But if it weren't for the calculations (and just plain physics!), humans wouldn't travel safely into space and home again. On her experience working as a 'human computer' at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Macie Roberts commented, "you have to look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, and work like a dog." Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson were just some of the brain power behind those early NASA spaceflights.  

Generations later, these women continue to inspire those of us who are reading their stories today. Those stories have been told in a variety of media, including The Glass Universe (review), Hidden Figures, Silent Sky, The Mercury 13, Right Stuff, Wrong Sex, and Rise of the Rocket Girls. Do you know of others? Post them in the comments section.

We should continue to support and recognize women and the work we all do. Helen Ling, a software engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the 1950s and 1960s, once said "...if you hire [men] under you, they're uncomfortable, you're uncomfortable. So I just hired women just out of college. I thought that if you didn't give them a chance, they'll never get a chance."

The same could be said when standing on the shoulders of giants. Thanks, pioneers, for giving us all a chance.

Read more about pioneering women at

4000 Years of Women in Science

First Lady Astronaut Trainees (blog post, support for a Congressional Gold Medal, video)

Women in Astronomy, A Resource Guide (Astronomical Society of the Pacific)

Crosspost: SETI Institute Joins Unistellar & The Planetary Society to Inspire Girls to Discover Space During World Space Week

Written by Rebecca McDonald for the SETI Institute

A budding astronomer observes the night sky on a chilly, winter night with Unistellar's popular evScope.

The SETI Institute is supporting a vital effort to help girls discover space during World Space Week, October 4-10, 2021. The 2021 theme for World Space Week is "Celebrating Women in Space," and the SETI Institute is teaming up with Unistellar and The Planetary Society to help girls discover all the wonder and possibilities of space. This initiative supports one of the SETI Institute’s strategic goals of improving science literacy in general and focusing on girls and other underserved communities.

"As a young girl ~ 8 years old, I was walking along a very dark beach in the Florida Keys with my dad - as he pointed out the constellations, I remember thinking that on a planet circling one of those stars, there would be a young creature walking along their beach and seeing our Sun as a star in their sky," said Jill Tarter, Co-Founder of the SETI Institute and SETI pioneer. “Having a science-based view of all of us as Earthlings will foster the cooperation that will be needed to find solutions to the challenges that threaten our long future on this planet.”

“Women remain a minority among the space and tech industries, but through outreach and education, these figures can change,” said Whitney McChane, Vice President, Communications for Unistellar. “Among the girls we’ll reach during World Space Week are the world’s future asteroid hunters, Mars explorers, stellar astronomers and astrophysicists. Early exposure to the majesty of space can spark a passion in girls that lasts a lifetime.”

Learn more about the all of the fun, inclusive events planned for World Space Week 2021 here:

https://www.seti.org/press-release/seti-institute-joins-unistellar-planetary-society-inspire-girls-discover-space-during-world-space 

And check out, https://unistellaroptics.com/world-space-week/, for even more details, a downloadable eBook with activities for all ages, and a sign up for the Asteroid Art Contest.