ASTRONOMER

Mary Somerville

1780 - 1872

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Mary Somerville ( SUM-ər-vil; née Fairfax, formerly Greig; 26 December 1780 – 29 November 1872) was a Scottish scientist, writer, and polymath. She studied mathematics and astronomy, and in 1835 she and Caroline Herschel were elected as the first female Honorary Members of the Royal Astronomical Society. When John Stuart Mill organized a massive petition to Parliament to give women the right to vote, he made sure that the first signature on the petition would be Somerville's. When she died in 1872, The Morning Post declared in her obituary that "Whatever difficulty we might experience in the middle of the nineteenth century in choosing a king of science, there could be no question whatever as to the queen of science". Read more on Wikipedia

Her biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Mary Somerville is the 139th most popular astronomer (down from 113th in 2019), the 1,173rd most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 992nd in 2019) and the 17th most popular British Astronomer.

Mary Somerville was a Scottish scientist who was the first woman to have her work published in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions. She was best known for her translation of Laplace's Mécanique Céleste.

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Among ASTRONOMERS

Among astronomers, Mary Somerville ranks 139 out of 644. Before her are Victor Ambartsumian, Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, Wilhelm von Biela, Liisi Oterma, Jean Chacornac, and Eric Walter Elst. After her are Auguste Charlois, Carolyn S. Shoemaker, William Henry Pickering, George Darwin, Oskar Backlund, and Williamina Fleming.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1780, Mary Somerville ranks 14. Before her are Charles Nodier, Jules de Polignac, Ranjit Singh, Sacagawea, Jernej Kopitar, and John Forsyth. After her are Bernardino Rivadavia, Karl Nesselrode, Clarke Abel, Tudor Vladimirescu, Conradin Kreutzer, and Richard Mentor Johnson. Among people deceased in 1872, Mary Somerville ranks 16. Before her are N. F. S. Grundtvig, Franz Grillparzer, George Robert Gray, Aleksis Kivi, William Webb Ellis, and Ljudevit Gaj. After her are Charles-Eugène Delaunay, Mpande kaSenzangakhona, Prince Albert of Prussia, Vladimir Dal, Immanuel Nobel, and Kawakami Gensai.

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Mary Somerville ranks 1,173 out of 8,785. Before her are Marty Feldman (1934), Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872), Guy Ritchie (1968), John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland (1504), Matt Busby (1909), and Adam Ferguson (1723). After her are Dylan Thomas (1914), Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (1594), William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (1779), Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (1130), Bob Klose (1945), and Andy Serkis (1964).

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Among ASTRONOMERS In United Kingdom

Among astronomers born in United Kingdom, Mary Somerville ranks 17. Before her are Antony Hewish (1924), John Russell Hind (1823), William Huggins (1824), Stephen Gray (1666), George Biddell Airy (1801), and N. R. Pogson (1829). After her are George Darwin (1845), Williamina Fleming (1857), Adelard of Bath (1075), James Dunlop (1793), Jeremiah Horrocks (1618), and William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse (1800).

British born Astronomers

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