Essay on Biography of Astronomer, Vera Cooper Rubin

Vera Rubin Biography - Vera Cooper Rubin was born July 23, 1928 in Philadelphia, PA. Her father was Philip Cooper, an electrical engineer, and her mother Rose. She first developed an interest in astronomy at the age of 10 while stargazing from her home in Washington D.C. Her father encouraged her to follow her dreams and took her to amateur astronomer meetings. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Vassar University in 1948 of which she was the only astronomy major that year. Later she earned her master’s from Cornell in 1950 with her masters’ thesis was controversial and centered around the possibility of bulk rotation by looking for â€Å"sideways† motion of galaxies. She finally got her Ph.D. from Georgetown University in 1954. Her doctoral†¦show more content†¦She has been a part of many scientific organizations such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, The American Philosophical Society, International Astronomical Union, National Academy of S ciences, the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. She is the author to several books and over 200 articles about galaxies and their motions.3 Famous For- She is most notable for providing a great deal of compelling evidence, alongside Dr. Kent Ford, that proved Fritz Zwicky’s Theory of the existence of Dark Matter.2 Zwicky stated that individual galaxies within the Coma Cluster were moving so fast that if they were only held by the gravity of its visible mass that it would escape. Since he found no evidence of the cluster falling apart he concluded that there must be something else holding it together that was nearly 10 times that of visible matter, he called this Dark matter.2 While working with Dr. Ford, they began analyzing the light coming from stars in spiral galaxies. They used what is called the â€Å"Doppler effect† which states the wavelength shift is proportional to the speed of the light source relative to the observer. This uses the wavelength of light in how it is approaching or moving away from the observer. When a light source moves away from you it presents a red color and when it comes toward you it presents a blue light. After measuring several stars in different parts