I didn’t know that. Did you?

   While researching for Silent Sky to learn about Henrietta Swan Leavitt, I learned of women who pioneered the heavens and sciences.

   Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) was the first woman credited with discovering a comet, the operative word being “credited.” For me, it brings home the wonder of all the women who advanced our understanding of our universe but who have never, and will never, be credited. We know their great discoveries but we will never know who they were.

   Jocelyn Burnell pioneered pulsars in 1967 but it was her thesis advisors (alone) who received the Nobel Prize in 1974, based on her work.

   Antoine-August Le Blanc discovered the famous Germain Primes in mathematics. But Mr. Le Blanc’s real name was Sophie Germain, born 1776, who knew she would not get taken seriously as a mathematician if she began her work under a name revealing a female author.

   So although I did not know before, I am learning now as light is shined into the world of women astronomers’ achievements, long relegated to its own black hole.

   Silent Sky takes us to the year 1900, and follows about 20 years in the career of Ms. Leavitt as she tried to expand beyond Harvard University’s firm limitations on the types of work they allowed “the girls” to do.

   Today, the field is more welcoming of women in science and mathematics. The discriminations may still exist but are more subtle than the overt exclusions of the past. The expanded horizons today for women astronomers exist because of the women who first discovered for us that which is beyond the horizon.

   Tomorrow and forever, there will always be ones among us who will be here to expand our awareness of this reality that we call “life.”