Williamina Fleming - from a maid to a world-famous astronomer

Being an assistant to Edward Charles Pickering's professor family is probably the most important decision for the young woman Williamina Fleming - the world famous astronomer who discovered the Horsehead Nebula.

Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming (1857-1911) - a Scottish woman who was 19 years old but decided to leave behind all to emigrate to the United States with her husband and start a new life in Boston, Massachusetts .

Previously, Williamina Fleming was a teacher at Dundee - a coastal village in eastern Scotland. Here, she met her husband James Fleming - a widow, 15 years older than her and an accountant.

Two years after starting a new life in the United States, Williamina Fleming was abandoned by her husband while pregnant with her first child without any money support. Having been pregnant, abandoned by her husband, and living in the land of her native land, Fleming seemed to be in a desperate situation. However, people often say: When a door closes, another door will open. A single person on the continent who was not familiar with her, she had to ask for help as she wanted to earn some money to support herself and her child. Few people doubt that this is a great opportunity, completely changing her life.

Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming (taken in 1890)

The unexpected fate brought this desperate single mother to Professor Edward Charles Pickering to meet. Pickering is the professor of physics and also the director of the Harvard Observatory. He hired Fleming to take care of things in the family. With a mind of an observer, Pickering quickly realized the amazing ability and intelligence of the new butler he had just hired. It is known that Pickering once shouted at his employees: " Even my maid can do better than you guys."

Williamina Fleming - The developer of the star catalog system

After returning from Scotland - where she gave birth to her first son Edward in 1881, Fleming began working with the staff at Pickering's Harvard Observatory , in place of his position. The assistant has caused a lot of headaches for this respected professor. Since then, she has proved her natural talent in this field of science by sorting and listing for more than 10,000 stars in just nine years . At the same time, she introduced a diagram of organizing new constellations by assigning alphabetic characters to stars (from A to Q, ignoring J) - based on the characteristics of the hydrogen lines on their spectrum.

This work was published in 1890 in the first version of the Henry Draper catalog and is one of Williamina Fleming's most valuable contributions to astronomy. Although her name is not included in the list of research authors, Pickering cited her name on internal pages and publicly acknowledged Fleming as the author of the new star classification system. What Fleming did was the basis for classifying the spectra used today.

Thanks to Fleming, Pickering realized that working with women was probably more pleasant and effective. Therefore, Pickering continued to recruit 9 more female employees to help him calculate and organize the spectra on the photographic glasses. This group of 9 female mathematicians has entered the history of humanity and is known as " Harvard Computer " (Harvard Computer). Among them, the most outstanding are the astronomers Antonia C. Maury and Annie J. Cannon, who have been able to rearrange the spectral groups and classify a large number of stars.

The group of female partners worked for Edward Charles Pickering at the Harvard Observatory

Throughout his career, Fleming discovered 59 nebulae, more than 310 variable stars and 10 supernovae (nova). One of her greatest achievements was the discovery of the Horsehead Nebula in the constellation Orion in 1888, which was later known as IC 434 . She was named the curator of the photo gallery of Astronomical Observatory, an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society of London.

Before his death, Fleming was awarded the Medal of Guadalupe Almendaro by the Mexican Astronomical Society for her contributions to astronomy. Her name is given to a crater * on the moon (crater Fleming).

In a world still in the mind of men and women, Williamina Fleming has overcome many barriers to conquer science, this pioneering woman has not only become a role model for millions of researchers. but also for the entire scientific community.