Leavitt, Henrietta Swan (1868–1921)
American astronomer who discovered the period-luminosity
relation of Cepheid variables.
Having graduated from Radcliffe College (1892), she joined Harvard
College Observatory in 1895 as a volunteer research assistant, receiving
a permanent post in 1902. Like her colleague Annie Cannon,
she was extremely deaf. In 1907 the director of the observatory, Edward
Pickering, announced plans to redetermine
stellar magnitudes photographically, previous estimates having been only
visual. Leavitt was made head of the department of photographic photometry
and it was while studying photographic plates made at Harvard's field station
in Peru, that she discovered in 1912 that Cepheid variables show a simple
relationship between period and luminosity. Using Leavitt's work as a springboard,
first Ejnar Hertzsprung, then Harlow
Shapley, and finally Walter Baade,
were able to use the Cepheids as a cosmic distance indicator. Leavitt also
did much work on other variable stars,
discovering about 2,400 – roughly half of those known in her time.
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