It's an important day in the history of astronomy, the birth date of a pioneering scientist who helped us classify the stars.

At the beginning of the story, almost nothing was known about what stars were made of

how they created their heat and light and by the end just about everything was known.

It's Monday December 11 11th, the birthday of Annie Jump Cannon,

who was born 160 years ago today.

It's also Science Friday.

I'm John Dankowski.

At the end of the 19th and the start of the 20th century,

Cannon played a key role in cataloging and understanding the stars in the sky.

Today, she's honored with the Annie Jump Cannon Award, which is given for outstanding research and promise for future research by a postdoctoral woman researcher.

Back in 2016, we got a history lesson about Canon and her colleagues.

Let's give a listen.

Here's Ira Plato.

When you look up at the sky at night,

you've probably noticed that each star has its own brightness.

You might even know that measuring that light can tell you how far away it is,

the composition of that star, and even reveal clues about the expansion of the universe. But you may not know that our understanding of how to classify stars came from the work of a group of female astronomers, women who worked at the Harvard College Observatory a hundred years ago.

My next guest is the author of a new book that recounts the stories and discoveries of those

scientists.

Davis Sobel is author of the Glass Universe how the

ladies of the Harvard Observatory took the measures of the stars and she joins me

in our Cuny studios. Welcome back always good to see you.

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