Maria Mitchell: The First Female Astronomer

Maria Mitchell was a well-liked and respected woman of honor who was best known for discovering a comet that was later named “Miss Mitchell's Comet” and also becoming the first female astronomer in the United States.

• Marias Education and childhood

• Discovering the comet

• Her legacy and death

Marias Childhood and Education

Maria Mitchell was born on August 1, 1818, in Massachusetts. Her parent’s names were William and Lydia Mitchell. Maria’s father, William Mitchell, noticed Maria’s interest in space and encouraged her to learn more about space and how to use a telescope. She used to gaze into the sky in the night studying solar eclipses and the stars when she worked as the first librarian at the Nantucket Atheneum library from 1836 to 1856. After she discovered “Miss Mitchell's Comet”, she left the Atheneum to travel abroad in the United States in 1856. She took a job to be a professor of astronomy at Vassar College in New York. She quickly became a well respected and liked educator. Maria and her students continued tracking and photographing sunspots and in 1882 they discovered Venus traversing the Sun. This was one of the most rare known planetary alignments known to man. In 1868, Mitchell was elected to the American Philosophical Society, Then in 1873, she co-founded the Association for the Advancement of Women, serving as the president of the organization for the next three years. She finally retired from teaching at Vassar in 1888.

Discovering the Comet

On October 1, 1847, Maria Mitchell was scanning the skies with her telescope on the roof of her father’s business place, the Pacific National Bank in Main Street in Nantucket, when she saw what appeared to be a comet. It turned out, the comet was uncharted by scientists and she was right and it was later named “Miss Mitchell's Comet” after her. After her amazing discovery, Mitchell was presented with a gold medal by Frederick VI, the king of Denmark, who was also slightly interested in astronomy as well. Mitchell was the first professional female astronomer in the United States. She was also respected by many astronomers and other scientists and became the first woman to be named to the American Academy of Arts and sciences in 1848. The following year, she made computations for the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac, the next year she was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science,

Her Legacy and Death

After she retired, she moved back to Massachusetts with her father. Mitchell sadly died the next year on June 28, 1889. She is buried with family members at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Nantucket. In honor of Mitchell being the first female astronomer, the observatory in Nantucket was named the Maria Mitchell Association, a World War II ship was named the SS Maria Mitchell, and also a Crater on the moon was named “Mitchells Crater”.

Although Maria Mitchell died, she is still respected today as one of the greatest astronomers as well as the first woman astronomer. She was posthumously inducted in the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1994, and many still look up to her to this day.