For #spacetober_challenge prompt day 30: galaxy - astronomer Vera Rubin (neé Cooper, ‘28-‘16) & her discovery that angular motion of galaxies deviates from predictions, 1st evidence for dark matter, now known as 5x as common as matter & the stuff which dictates dynamics of galaxies & evolution of our universe! The Nobel committee waited 3 years after she died to reward another for the theory of dark matter. 🧵
She found 6 months mat leave post MSc very difficult being at home watching physicist husband going to work to pursue what he loved. He insisted she return to grad school. Admitted to Georgetown at 23, expecting 2nd child. Writing her thesis, advisor Heyden got her in contact with #physicist George Gamow, who worked at nearby APL & adjunct at George Washington U who took her on as a student (PhD ‘54).
While 4 kids were young, she taught at Georgetown before gaining a position at 🧵2/
gathered dozens of rotation curves for galaxies & all were flat. Their data was undeniable.
Dark matter proposed by Oort (‘32) & Zwicky (‘33) but largely ignored. “One day … I made sketches on a piece of paper, and suddenly I understood it all,” Rubin said. A halo of unseen dark matter around galactic cores would spread mass throughout the galaxies, & speeds would remain flat with distance.
🧵4/5
She championed #womenInSTEM writing, “I live and work under 3 basic assumptions. 1: There is no problem in science that can be solved by a man that cannot be solved by a woman. 2: Worldwide, half of all brains are in women. 3: We all need permission to do science, but, for reasons that are deeply ingrained in history, this permission is more often given to men than to women.”
🧵5/5
Ele Willoughby, PhD