Know the scientist: Annie Jump Cannon

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Know the scientist: Annie Jump Cannon


Cannon labeled over 350,000 and found some 300 variable stars and 5 novae

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Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941) was an American astronomer who specialised in cataloguing stars. She, together with Edward Pickering, created the Harvard Classification Scheme based mostly on the stars’ temperatures and spectral varieties. The International Astronomical Union formally adopted Cannon’s system of stellar classification in 1922, and astronomers use it even right now.

Annie Jump Cannon was born in Dover, Delaware. It was Cannon’s mom, Mary Jump, who instilled an curiosity for astronomy in Annie Cannon. The mom and daughter duo used an previous astronomy guide to establish stars. Annie Cannon misplaced most of her listening to because of scarlet fever someday throughout her grownup years.

Annie Cannon graduated in physics and astronomy from Wellesley College in 1884. In 1895 she enrolled at Radcliffe to check advance astronomy. Cannon was employed to work at the Harvard College Observatory below Edward Pickering, in 1896. She turned a part of a bunch generally known as “Pickering’s Women,” who specialised in cataloguing stars, an bold mission of Pickering. Williamina P.S. Fleming and Antonia Maury had been the different two girls scientists in the crew. The group was tasked with recording, classifying, and cataloguing the spectra of all stars to photographic magnitude of about 9.

By simplifying the earlier classifications of Fleming and Maury, Cannon got here up with the courses O, B, A, F, G, Ok, and M. She categorised the stars based mostly on their temperature. Her spectral classifications had been quickly universally adopted.

Cannon labeled over 350,000 and found some 300 variable stars and 5 novae in the course of. Her work was revealed in 9 volumes as the Henry Draper Catalogue.

She was awarded the honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1925 and the Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 1931.



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