How Did Maria Mitchell Contribute To Science

Maria Mitchell: The First Female Professional American Scientist Gifted Maria Mitchell is one of the most prominent scientists in American history. Mitchell’s early life powerfully influenced her choice of profession. In 1847 she observed a new comet as it whizzed across the night-time sky, now known as “Miss Mitchel’s Comet”. This fantastic discovery rewarded her diligence with recognition in a plethora of sophisticated circles of astronomers. She continued on to become a professor of astronomy at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she faithfully educated her students until 1888, one year before she tragically died. On August 1, 1818 in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Maria Mitchell was born to Quaker parents, William and Lydia Mitchell. Her father was a schoolteacher and later a banker as well as an amateur astronomer and a colleague of William Cranch Bond, who became the first director of the observatory at Harvard University. Although many households at that time disagreed with them, the Mitchells encouraged the education of all ten of their children, including the girls, and likewise,

By then, she had become a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science for her contributions to astronomy. During her 23 years teaching at the Vassar College, she had the opportunity to travel to a couple different locations to view, examine, and record total solar eclipses, as well as the chance to study sun spots, stars, comets, nebulae, Saturn and Jupiter, and their satellites. Mitchell and her beloved students also documented Venus traversing the sun in 1882, which planetary alignment is among the rarest known, and has occurred only eight times between 1608 and 2012. This amazing woman and her students were renowned in their time for their extensive contributions to science and