Henrietta Leavitt discovers the Cepheid period-luminosity relation

Historical Context Note

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Domains

Astronomy

Dates

Date of occurrence 1908

Places

United States (Location)

Resources

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Henrietta Swan Leavitt (4th July, 1868 - 12th December, 1921) was an American astronomer. While working in a menial job counting images on photographic plates at Harvard College Observatory, she discovered the period-luminosity relation of Cepheid variables, in which brighter star variables have longer periods. Her ground-breaking theory, published in 1908, was the basis for the work of astronomer Edwin Hubble, as it allowed for the measurement of distances in the Universe. Leavitt received little recognition for her achievement.

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