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posted by takyon on Monday December 31 2018, @10:55PM   Printer-friendly

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Nancy Grace Roman, 'Mother Of Hubble' Space Telescope, Has Died, At Age 93

When Nancy Grace Roman was a child, her favorite object to draw was the moon. Her mother used to take her on walks under the nighttime sky and show her constellations, or point out the colorful swirls of the aurora. Roman loved to look up at the stars and imagine. Eventually, her passion for stargazing blossomed into a career as a renowned astronomer. Roman was one of the first female executives at NASA, where she served as the agency's first chief of astronomy. Known as the "Mother of Hubble," for her role in making the Hubble Space Telescope a reality, Roman worked at NASA for nearly two decades. She died on Dec. 25 at the age of 93.

[...] From the get-go, Roman promoted space-based astronomy, where instrumentation is based in space unlike traditional ground-based astronomy equipment, such as telescopes. The reason behind this push is that looking through the Earth's atmosphere blurs or lessens the quality of the observation. [...] Her efforts helped lead to the creation of the Hubble Space Telescope. In her role at NASA, Roman developed and planned the Hubble Space Telescope, which is famous for its stunning images of space.


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  • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @01:50AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @01:50AM (#780484)

    She would have preferred to be known as a great executive who got the Hubble built on time and on budget, but thanks to SJWs she's now recognized for being female.

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by dw861 on Tuesday January 01 2019, @02:57AM

    by dw861 (1561) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 01 2019, @02:57AM (#780502) Journal

    Well, maybe, but I think not.

    No doubt that she would have wanted to be remembered as an intelligent, capable person. Also for her work in observing the spectra and brightness of stars as part of research in stellar distances and motions; leading her to conclude (with a significant contribution) that stars composed primarily of hydrogen and helium move faster than stars with heavier elements.

    Still, I note that in a pay-walled March 19, 2009 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, Roman is quoted as saying that all through her schooling "many people made it clear that astronomy was not a field for a woman."

    Yet later, "Roman left [academic] research and teaching because she found it impossible for a woman to get tenure in the 1950s." That those doors were closed to her is why she ended up at NASA, rather than at a university.

    Ten years before her death she thought these challenging aspects of her life experience important enough to share with others. People's lives are complicated, and to truly remember somebody, one must have an awareness all of the complications that they faced. Even if this agitates the occasional Anonymous Coward.