Crosspost: Celebrating Women in the Physical Sciences

This month AIP is highlighting achievements and challenges for women in the physical sciences community at aip.org. Today we're crossposting these articles to draw more attention to women in science for Women's History Month.

"Zoe Adams, a graduate student at the University of Maryland and 2025 intern at the Niels Bohr Library & Archives, is on a mission to ensure the contributions of women in science are never lost. In the video below, Zoe discusses her work processing the papers of Gloria Lubkin, a pioneering physicist and longtime editor of Physics Today, and why making these historical materials accessible is vital for the future of science. 

Young women conducting an experiment in the Physics Laboratory, Wellesley College. Photo: AIP Archives, Emilio Segre Visual Archives General Collection.

AIP is also featuring stories from its site celebrating women scientists, like this 2024 post "Women Leaders in Astronomy" and this 2025 one, "How AIP Is Giving A Name To Mrs. Scientist." Find more posts like these for Women's History Month at aip.org/womens-history-month.

I Changed Astronomy Forever - Jocelyn Bell in Her Own Words

Today we're featuring Jocelyn Bell Burnell's short documentary "I Changed Astronomy Forever. He Won the Nobel Prize For It."

Jocelyn Bell Burnell attends the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting at Pasadena, California, January 5, 1987. Photo: American Institute of Physics (AIP) via Wikimedia.

In this short documentary by Ben Proudfoot, Bell Burnell tells her story about being raised as a Quaker, her struggle being the only woman in the room in STEM, and how hard it was to pursue that path against the attitude that women were to be in the home. Bell discovered pulsars as a PhD graduate student at Cambridge University, but Proudfoot's documentary reveals why she was not credited at the time.

Of course, Jocelyn Bell Burnell is both famous and deserving of recognition for her discovery and her career.

YouTube: New York Times Opinion 'Almost Famous' by Op-Docs. "I Changed Astronomy Forever. He Won The Nobel Prize For It.

Crosspost: Meet 7 Women Who Broke Barriers in Astronomy for Women's History Month

Welcome to Women's History Month. This week we feature Sam Cohen's article for Iowa Starting Line, "Meet 7 women who broke barriers in astronomy for Women's History Month." Cohen presents some of astronomy's most famous women as the month kicks off.

"In recognition of Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating the lives and careers of seven pioneering women who have made history with their scientific achievements.

Many corners of the scientific world have been profoundly impacted by the work of women. They’ve blazed a trail across every field, breaking down barriers for themselves and others in the process. These extraordinary women have discovered comets, created classification systems, and stared into the abyss of black holes.

From the first Indian woman in space to the “Hidden Figures” of NASA, these women have made significant contributions to astronomy and beyond."

https://iowastartingline.com/community/7-women-who-broke-barriers-in-astronomy-for-womens-history-month/

Nancy Roman. Photo: NASA

Chasing the Stars: Women Astronomers at the University of Wisconsin

Eds Note: We are delighted to offer an excerpt from Chasing the Stars: How the Astronomers of Observatory Hill Transformed Our Understanding of the Universe by James Lattis and Kelly Tyrrell, published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2024.

Women in Astronomy

Women’s participation in astronomy has always been constrained by the social conventions and norms of wider society, many of which limited women’s access to education itself. 

Initially, women were considered by many male astronomers to be unsuited for the “physical hardships” of long nighttime hours at the telescope, not to mention academic life more generally. But norms and conventions shifted rapidly in the United States after the Civil War, and female students were becoming more common on college campuses by the time Washburn Observatory came along. 

Despite critics who argued that rigorous study would adversely affect a woman’s health or that women would distract men from their studies, female students across the nation grew in number, and the University of Wisconsin was among the more progressive in bringing women to campus. John Bascom was important in this as university president because he believed in equal access to higher education and academics for women. 

Edward Holden was also very supportive of women who were interested in astronomy and employed several students not only for computation but for significant work with the observatory’s new instruments. Among the most notable are Alice Sanborn and Alice Lamb, who published their work under their own names in the Publications of the Washburn Observatory between 1883 and 1886. 

Edith Flather worked as a computer, or coder,
at Washburn Observatory in the 1950s and ’60s. 

Computation was a highly skilled activity. Women’s skills were equal to men’s, Joel Stebbins remarked, except “usually the women are neater and just as accurate.” However, before roughly the middle of the twentieth century, women who sought astronomical careers beyond computing were, with rare exceptions, limited to the handful of positions at small observatories at women’s colleges, where they succeeded as practicing astronomers in defiance of biases. As happened with Lamb, social forces pressed many young potential astronomers, as Stebbins put it, to be “converted into matrimony,” rather than pursuing careers in science. 

After Holden’s tenure, there seem to have been very few women employed at Washburn Observatory outside of the traditional roles of clerical help and computation. Before the 1960s, it was rare for the University of Wisconsin to award graduate degrees in astronomy at all. However, of the three graduate degrees awarded in astronomy in the first half of the twentieth century, one was a master of arts awarded in 1932 to Alletta Esther Beddoe. 

While little remains about her in the historical record, Beddoe’s hometown is listed in the university’s 1932 commencement booklet as Springdale, Arkansas, and she received her bachelor’s degree in 1930 from Carleton College, in Minnesota. Stebbins writes that Beddoe was working at Washburn during the summer of 1930, and he recommended her for an out-of-state tuition remission scholarship. Admissions forms from both 1930 and 1931 show her enrolled in a master’s program, but, though the booklet lists her degree as astronomy, it does not mention her thesis title, and the nature of her work at Washburn remains obscure. 

Betty Louise Webster looks through the
 eyepiece of the Washburn refractor. 

It wasn’t until the fall of 1966 that Washburn Observatory employed its first female PhD astronomer on staff. Betty Louise Webster (1941–1990) came to Wisconsin from Australia for her postdoctoral research, specifically because it was the best place to advance her research in photoelectric photometry of planetary nebulae, a specialty of the university’s Donald Osterbrock. An article in the Capital Times in 1967 shows how far views about women in observational astronomy had come: “Astronomy presents no special handicaps for women, least of all observations with the big telescopes, as Miss Webster sees things.” 

Women began to account for a significant portion of advanced researchers in astronomy in the early 1960s, and Wisconsin was part of that trend—about one in four graduate students were women. The first woman to earn a doctorate in astronomy at the University of Wisconsin was Natalie Satunas in 1964. Next, in 1967, came Susan Simkin (1940–2021), who became the first woman tenured in the Astronomy Department at Michigan State University, and Laura “Pat” Bautz (1940–2014), who spent much of her career at the National Science Foundation. There, Bautz eventually held the position of director of the Division of Astronomical Science, and she also served Wisconsin as a member of the Astronomy Department’s Board of Visitors. 

Faculty appointments of women in astronomy began to pick up beginning with astronomer Linda Sparke, a specialist in the dynamics of galaxies, who became a University of Wisconsin professor in 1989. Three decades later, roughly half of all PhDs awarded in astronomy at UW–Madison and elsewhere go to women. Their potential was overlooked for far too long. 

Female grad students in the UW Astronomy Department, May 1963.
Back to front: Susan Simkin, Laura Bautz, Bernadette Londak, and Natalie Satunas.

Reprinted with permission by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press © 2024. All rights reserved. Chasing the Stars is available for purchase from the Wisconsin Historical Society online store at https://shop.wisconsinhistory.org/chasing-the-stars. It can also be found at booksellers near you.

All photos are courtesy of the Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin–Madison, reprinted with permission.

Crosspost: Helen Hogg: Giving the Stars to Everyone

In honor of Women's History Month and in celebration of the 86th anniversary of the publication of her definitive catalogue of variable stars in globular clusters, we offer this article about Dr. Helen Hogg, first published in Sky & Telescope in September 2024.

By Anne Saker

Helen Sawyer Hogg. Image credit: University of Toronto

At 16, [Helen] enrolled at Mount Holyoke College as a chemistry major. Then she witnessed the total solar eclipse of Jan. 24, 1925.

“Despite my horribly cold feet standing in nearly a foot of snow,” she wrote later, “the incredible beauty and grandeur of a total eclipse tied me to astronomy for life.”

Helen came to the notice of Harlow Shapley, director of the Harvard College Observatory, and he awarded her a $650 fellowship to pursue a doctorate with him, studying star clusters.

In these dense stellar neighborhoods, also called globular clusters, some stars brighten and dim, on their own or because something else is acting on them. By the late 1920s, astronomers used that variability to measure galactic distances.

Observing and photographing globular clusters demanded hours at the eyepiece, tweaking the telescope’s Newtonian focus. Under Shapley’s direction, Helen catalogued every variable star she captured and, ahead of her PhD from Radcliffe College, her name appeared on a dozen papers.

Read more at

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/famous-astronomers/helen-sawyer-hogg-giving-the-stars-to-everyone/

Crosspost: How Charlotte Moore Sitterly Wrote The Encyclopedia of Starlight

By Elizabeth Landau, for Smithsonian Magazine

Charlotte Moore Sitterly working at her desk at the
National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C.
Image Credit: Michael Duncan via the M.D. Moore Family

Charlotte Moore could smell the coal burning in the furnace below her back-room workspace at the Princeton University Observatory. With a meager starting salary of $100 per month, she worked as a “computer” for the famous astronomer Henry Norris Russell, helping with calculations to describe how stars evolve and what kinds of materials burn inside them. Her boss’s mind seemed to run too quickly for anyone to follow, and the short, quiet woman he hired fresh out of college in 1920 was initially overwhelmed.

“I felt that he must think that I was the most ignorant person that ever showed up at his house,” she told space historian David DeVorkin in 1978.

At a time when few women had opportunities in the physical sciences, and fewer still received recognition for their efforts, Charlotte Moore Sitterly, as she was known after her marriage, was a pioneer in a field that has touched nearly all scientific disciplines: spectroscopy. 

Read more about the woman who worked tirelessly for decades to measure the makeup of the sun and the stars at

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-charlotte-moore-sitterly-wrote-encyclopedia-starlight-180973152/?

Cross-post: They were astronomers

By Kristine Palmieri for Physics Today

Some of the female employees, graduate students, and volunteer researchers at
Yerkes Observatory in the summer of 1916. Names and image credit in the link below.

In astronomy, there was a strong demand for educated women, who were hired as human computers at facilities such as the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London; the Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Mount Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, California (5). But their work was routine and required only a basic knowledge of mathematics, not advanced astronomical or astrophysical training. Those observatories hired women because they provided cheap and reliable labor. At Greenwich, for example, calculations had previously been carried out by boys (6). And at Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York, women without college degrees were preferred precisely because they were cheaper (7).

At Yerkes Observatory, however, a different system emerged. Because it was attached to the University of Chicago, which was coed from its foundation in 1890, women astronomers at Yerkes always had the opportunity to obtain advanced degrees. Emily Dobbin became the first woman to earn an MS in astronomy from the university in 1903. Her thesis, “The orbit of the fifth satellite of Jupiter,” was published in the Astronomical Journal the following year (8).

Yerkes was also unique because its location in the southern Wisconsin village of Williams Bay made it accessible. Not only was the municipality the last stop on a train line that connected the town with Chicago, but the observatory’s proximity to the community also enabled women to find respectable accommodations nearby. That was unusual. 

Read more at

https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/76/11/42/2918346/They-were-astronomersUnlike-at-most-other

See also

Photo essay: The untold history of women at Yerkes Observatory

References (from original story)

5. P. E. Mack, J. Hist. Astron. 21, 65 (1990), https://doi.org/10.1177/002182869002100108; M. T. Brück, Q. J. R. Astron. Soc. 36, 83 (1995); E.-J. Ahn, Hist. Stud. Nat. Sci. 52, 555 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1525/hsns.2022.52.5.555. 

6. Ref. 5, M. T. Brück, p. 85.

7. J. Lankford, American Astronomy: Community, Careers, and Power, 1859–1940, U. Chicago Press (1997), p. 339.  

8. E. E. Dobbin, Astron. J. 24, 83 (1904). https://doi.org/10.1086/103567.

AASWomen Newsletter for March 8, 2024

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of March 8, 2024
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Sethanne Howard, and Hannah Jang-Condell

[In celebration of International Women's Day, we thank the women in our lives for all they do.  --eds.]

Ruby Payne-Scott
(Image Credit: Hall Family) 

This week's issues:

1. Cross-post: The Forgotten Star of Radio Astronomy
2. Unveiling Gender Imbalance, Efforts, and Consequences in Astronomy 
3. Women and Girls in Astronomy Program: 2024 Call for Proposals
4. Women of NASA Langley Research Center
5. Simone Daro Gossner
6. Nature publishes too few papers from women researchers — that must change
7. Save the Date for the October 15-16 2024 Public Summit on Preventing Sexual Harassment! 
8. Call for Presentations for Public Summit on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education
9. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
11. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.

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1. Cross-post: The Forgotten Star of Radio Astronomy
From: Nicolle Zellner via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

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 at 

https://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2024/03/cross-post-forgotten-star-of-radio.html

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2. Unveiling Gender Imbalance, Efforts, and Consequences in Astronomy  
From: John Leibacher <jleibacher_at_nso.edu>

In celebration of International Women's Day, the IAU Women in Astronomy (WiA) Working Group (WG) is excited to organize the event: "Unveiling Gender Imbalance, Efforts, and Consequences in Astronomy." This initiative aims to acknowledge both permanent and contractual researchers who have made exceptional contributions to advancing gender equality in Astronomy, encompassing achievements in research, mentorship, and advocacy. Our objective is to honor individuals who consistently foster a supportive environment for every member of our community.

The event will take place online via Zoom on 8th March 2024, from 13:30 to 15:30 CET and it will be recorded.

Information about the session can be found at

https://forms.gle/KpsVLVJeFm5YFTUq6

Learn more about the special WiA WG session and view the recording at 

https://sites.google.com/view/iau-women-in-astronomy/home

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3. Women and Girls in Astronomy Program: 2024 Call for Proposals
From: Yasmin Catricheo <YCatricheo_at_aui.edu>

The Women and Girls in Astronomy Program (WGAP) inspires and supports women, girls, and underrepresented genders in the field of astronomy. The program, implemented by the NA-ROAD, targets aspiring astronomers and current professionals alike to establish a network to uplift, educate, connect with, and promote astronomy for development in women and girls.

The Program is looking to fund 10 projects that use astronomy for development activities to promote, support, and uplift women and girls in the field. Qualifying projects must align with at least one of the NA-ROAD’s five Strategic Goals 1 through 5, and take place in Canada, United States, the Caribbean, Mexico, or Greenland. Projects are encouraged to approach astronomy from a unique lens, including, but not limited to, scientific, social, technical, cultural, and artistic perspectives.

Learn more and apply at

https://naroad.astro4dev.org/na-road-projects/women-and-girls-astronomy-program/

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4. Women of NASA Langley Research Center
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

By Monika Luabeya

In honor of Women’s History Month and those who paved the way for them, hundreds of female staff – from artists to administrative support, educators to engineers, and scientists to safety officers – gathered in front of the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, on Feb. 6, 2024.

See the picture and read more at

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/women-of-nasa-langley-research-center/

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5. Simone Daro Gossner 
From: Sethanne Howard <sethanneh_at_msn.com>

Since I was Chief of the Nautical Almanac Office, Gossner is an important part of my history.

Simone Daro Gossner (1920–2002) was a Belgian-American astronomer who specialized in eclipses at the Nautical Almanac Office of the United States Naval Observatory. She received her education in Brussels. During World War II, when the universities in Brussels were closed due to the German occupation, she became an underground teacher. In 1946, she was brought to Radcliffe College in the United States through a program by the American Association of University Women, which aimed to provide educational opportunities for young women affected by the war.

Read more at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Daro_Gossner

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6. Nature publishes too few papers from women researchers — that must change
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

By The Editors

This journal will double down on efforts to diversify the pool of corresponding authors and referees.

During the period analysed, some 10% of corresponding authors preferred not to disclose their gender. Of the remainder, just 17% identified as women — barely an increase on the 16% we found in 2018, albeit using a less precise methodology. By comparison, women made up 31.7% of all researchers globally in 2021, according to figures from the United Nations science, education and cultural organization UNESCO (see go.nature.com/3wgdasb).

Read more at

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00640-5

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7. Save the Date for the October 15-16 2024 Public Summit on Preventing Sexual Harassment! 
From: John Leibacher <jleibacher_at_nso.edu>

The 2024 Public Summit will take place on October 15-16, 2024 at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, with the option of attending virtually or in-person. The Public Summit of the National Academies’ Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education is an open forum for those in the higher education ecosystem to collaboratively identify, discuss, and elevate innovative and promising approaches and new research on addressing and preventing sexual harassment. This annual event brings together a diverse group, including members and partner network organizations of the Action Collaborative, the broader higher education community, sexual harassment researchers and response practitioners, grassroots and nonprofit organizations, public and private foundations, and federal and state policymakers.

Learn more at

https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/42244_10-2024_action-collaborative-on-preventing-sexual-harassment-in-higher-education-2024-public-summit

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8. Call for Presentations for Public Summit on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education
From: John Leibacher <jleibacher_at_nso.edu>

The Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education invites submissions for presentations, posters, and sessions on practices to address and prevent sexual harassment in higher education and research that can help inform such practices. Individuals across higher education and those that want to contribute to the discussion around preventing sexual harassment in higher education are encouraged to submit about their work, ideas, and research so it can be included at the Action Collaborative’s Annual Public Summit. The submission deadline is Friday, June 7, 2024.

For more information, please see

https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/42244_10-2024_action-collaborative-on-preventing-sexual-harassment-in-higher-education-2024-public-summit 

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9. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter

To submit an item to the AASWOMEN newsletter, including replies to topics, send email to aaswomen_at_lists.aas.org .

All material will be posted unless you tell us otherwise, including your email address.

When submitting a job posting for inclusion in the newsletter, please include a one-line description and a link to the full job posting.

Please remember to replace "_at_" in the e-mail address above.

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10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

Join AAS Women List through the online portal:

To Subscribe, go to https://aas.simplelists.com/aaswlist/subscribe/ and enter your name and email address, and click Subscribe. You will be sent an email with a link to click to confirm subscription.

To unsubscribe from AAS Women by email:

Go to https://aas.simplelists.com/aaswlist/subscribe/ , in the "My account and unsubscriptions", type your email address. You will receive an email with a link to access your account, from there you can click the unsubscribe link for this mailing list.

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11. Access to Past Issues

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/search/label/AASWOMEN 

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/

Cross-post: This Astrophysicist Will Make You Believe In Your Dreams All Over Again

By Priyamvada Kowshik, for 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters that brings out unheard stories from the hinterland.

Prajval Shastri at work (Credit: 101Reporter)

"One of the foremost astrophysicists in the country, Prof Shastri specialises in supermassive black holes at the centre of distant galaxies and the jet streams emerging from them. She is equally passionate about dismantling the patriarchy in science, and the inequities and systemic barriers for women in physics. Shastri wants to build an inclusive physics community, where people of all backgrounds can thrive.

Women in science represent an important societal intersection and among the sciences, physics has one of the largest gender gaps among science disciplines. To address this inequity, Prof Shastri founded and chaired the Gender in Physics Working Group (GIPWG) of the Indian Physics Association (IPA). She also conceived and led the drafting of the Hyderabad Charter for Gender Equity in Physics, a call to action to the Indian physics community to address gender disparity."

Read more at

https://feminisminindia.com/2023/02/23/this-astrophysicist-will-make-you-believe-in-your-dreams-all-over-again/

Crosspost: 120 3D-Printed Statues of Women Redefine What Scientists Look Like

Written by Jack Tamisiea for Smithsonian Magazine

For Women's History Month, the Smithsonian teamed up with Light Hill Partners to create the "#IfThenSheCan" exhibit, a series of 120 orange statues featuring prominent women in STEM. Credit: WTOP News.

Some of the brightest minds in science and technology are visiting the Smithsonian this month. But instead of a one-night lecture circuit, these scientists, who do everything from design rockets to create shark sanctuaries, will be stationed around the National Mall in the form of life-sized, 3D-printed sculptures.

Featuring 120 bright orange statues of contemporary female scientists, “#IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit” is the largest collection of statues of women ever assembled at a single location at one time. To celebrate the Smithsonian’s Women’s Futures Month, the statues will be displayed in the Smithsonian Gardens and in several Smithsonian museums between March 5 and 27.

The exhibit is part of Lyda Hill Philanthropies’ IF/THEN initiative that aims to inspire middle school age girls to pursue STEM careers. The statues portray researchers from all facets of science, technology and engineering. For the advancement of their fields, these women crawl into bear dens in Alaska, excavate artifacts from swamps and scour the desert for cryptic lizards.

Read the rest of the article at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-of-natural-history/2022/03/08/120-3d-printed-statues-of-women-redefine-what-scientists-look-like/ 

And if you're on the East Coast, be sure to check out the exhibit outside of the Smithsonian Castle at the National Mall!

Crosspost: Harriet Tubman, Astronomer Extraordinaire

While the last day of Black History Month was technically yesterday, today marks the beginning of Women's History Month. I can't think of a better way to celebrate than by sharing this wonderful piece by Dr. Chandra Prescod-Weinstein on the Black woman astronomer, freedom fighter, and abolitionist, Harriet Tubman. Be sure to check out the Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Project before March 10th for an interactive exploration of Tubman's incredible life story.

Written by Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

The Milky Way splashes across the early evening sky in "Over the Marshes 2" by photographer, Robert Fawcett. 

Polaris, the North Star, is so named because it always points toward true north. Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman used the North Star to liberate herself—then went South over and over again, using it to liberate both family and strangers. 

Toward the end of his astonishing debut novel of Black queer life during slavery, The Prophets, Robert Jones, Jr.’s “Prophets” declare: “The cosmos is on your side.” At this moment in the text, the reader is called to imagine that our enslaved ancestors were in fact watched over; we are called to remember the stories many of us were raised on, about enslaved folk who followed the Drinking Gourd—the stellar constellation more popularly known as the Big Dipper—to freedom. The Drinking Gourd is notable because of its easy-to-identify shape, which simplifies finding Polaris, the North Star, so named because it always points toward true north.

Polaris was thus a natural compass, especially for enslaved people who were self-liberating, including Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman. The story appears repeatedly throughout popular representations of Tubman: She used the North Star to liberate herself. Then, like a superhero, she went South over and over again, using the North Star to liberate both family and strangers. 

Read the rest of the article at: https://msmagazine.com/2022/02/03/harriet-tubman-astronomer-underground-railroad-north-star-nasa/