Google Doodle honoring the birthday of astronomy pioneer Maria Mitchell. (Photo: Google)
Story Highlights Maria Mitchell was the country's first female professional astronomer Discovered 'Mitchell's Comet' She became a professor at Vassar
Google has doodled up a birthday salute to U.S. astronomy pioneer Maria Mitchell on what would have been her 195th birthday.
Mitchell was the country's first female professional astronomer. In 1847, she discovered a comet through a telescope (later named "Miss Mitchell's Comet," according to Wikipedia). She spotted it from a perch on the roof of the Pacific National Bank on Main Street in Nantucket, Mass., where her father worked.
By 1865, Mitchell had become a professor of astronomy at Vassar College.
The tribute is part of Google's efforts to spotlight women in science and tech. Last month, Google's home page featured a sepia-toned drawing celebrating the birthday of British biophysicist Rosalind Franklin, an early researcher into the structure of DNA. A February doodle paid tribute to anthropologist Mary Leakey.
Today's Google Doodle homage by Doodler Jennifer Hom portrays Mitchell atop the bank, peering through a telescope into the night sky. To the right in the scene below is an observatory and off in the corner is her house.
"The Doodle team and I have been doing a lot more doodles of women, especially in science and tech fields," says Hom. In doing research for the Mitchell doodle, "I loved that there were all of these old photos of her" with her students, she says.
Indeed, fostering women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields is a big emphasis at Google and other tech companies.
"We really want to shine a spotlight on these women," says Kristen Gil, a Google vice president who heads up the Women@Google program.
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