ASTRONOMER

Henrietta Swan Leavitt

1868 - 1921

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Henrietta Swan Leavitt (; July 4, 1868 – December 12, 1921) was an American astronomer. Her discovery of how to effectively measure vast astronomical distances led to a shift in the understanding of the scale and nature of the universe. Nomination of Leavitt for the Nobel Prize had to be halted because of her death. A graduate of Radcliffe College, she worked at the Harvard College Observatory as a human computer, tasked with measuring photographic plates to catalog the positions and brightness of stars. Read more on Wikipedia

Her biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Henrietta Swan Leavitt is the 81st most popular astronomer (down from 60th in 2019), the 1,046th most popular biography from United States (down from 863rd in 2019) and the 14th most popular American Astronomer.

Henrietta Swan Leavitt was a Harvard astronomer and mathematician who discovered the relationship between the luminosity of stars and their distance from Earth.

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Among ASTRONOMERS

Among astronomers, Henrietta Swan Leavitt ranks 81 out of 644. Before her are Pierre Méchain, Pierre Janssen, Russell Alan Hulse, Wilhelm Tempel, Ejnar Hertzsprung, and Antony Hewish. After her are John Russell Hind, Percival Lowell, Arthur B. McDonald, Karl Ludwig Harding, Eugene Merle Shoemaker, and George O. Abell.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1868, Henrietta Swan Leavitt ranks 33. Before her are Gustav Meyrink, August Horch, Felix Hoffmann, Dietrich Eckart, Edmond Rostand, and Charles Maurras. After her are Annie S. D. Maunder, Louis Couturat, Vittorio Monti, Florence Foster Jenkins, Huo Yuanjia, and Scott Joplin. Among people deceased in 1921, Henrietta Swan Leavitt ranks 19. Before her are Talaat Pasha, Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, `Abdu'l-Bahá, John Boyd Dunlop, Antoni Grabowski, and Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil. After her are Alexander Blok, Engelbert Humperdinck, Mykola Leontovych, Eugen Dühring, Matthias Erzberger, and William II of Württemberg.

Others Born in 1868

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Others Deceased in 1921

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Henrietta Swan Leavitt ranks 1,046 out of 20,380. Before her are Mark Hamill (1951), Neal Cassady (1926), Anne Baxter (1923), John B. Calhoun (1917), Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (1909), and Charles Koch (1935). After her are Charlie Sheen (1965), Jesse Livermore (1877), Little Richard (1932), William T. G. Morton (1819), Arthur Kornberg (1918), and Haldan Keffer Hartline (1903).

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Among ASTRONOMERS In United States

Among astronomers born in United States, Henrietta Swan Leavitt ranks 14. Before her are Asaph Hall (1829), Clyde Tombaugh (1906), William Alfred Fowler (1911), Edward Emerson Barnard (1857), Vera Rubin (1928), and Russell Alan Hulse (1950). After her are Percival Lowell (1855), Eugene Merle Shoemaker (1928), George O. Abell (1927), Henry Norris Russell (1877), Edward Charles Pickering (1846), and Lewis A. Swift (1820).

American born Astronomers

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