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Vera Rubin, astronomer who helped find evidence of dark matter, dies aged 88

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Vera Rubin, from Philadelphia, helped find powerful evidence of dark matter by discovering galaxies don’t quite rotate in the way they were predicted.  Sadly died aged 88, her son said on Monday.

She died on Sunday evening (25.12.16) of natural causes, Allan Rubin told the Associated Press.  The professor of geosciences at Princeton University said his mother, a Philadelphia native, had been living in the Princeton area.

Vera Rubin found that galaxies don’t quite rotate the way they were predicted, and that lent support to the theory that some other force was at work, namely dark matter.

Dark matter, which hasn’t been directly observed, makes up 27% of the universe – as opposed to 5% of the universe being normal observable matter. Scientists better understand what dark matter is not rather than what it is.

Rubin’s scientific achievements earned her numerous honours, including becoming the second female astronomer to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She also received the National Medal of Science from President Bill Clinton in 1993 ‘for her pioneering research programs in observational cosmology’.

Her interest in astronomy began as a young girl and grew with the involvement of her father, Philip Cooper, an electrical engineer who helped her build a telescope and took her to meetings of amateur astronomers.

She was the only astronomy major to graduate from Vassar College in 1948.  When she sought to enrol as a graduate student at Princeton, she learned that women were not allowed in the university’s graduate astronomy program, so she instead earned her master’s degree from Cornell.

Rubin earned her doctorate from Georgetown University, where she was later employed as a faculty member for several years before working at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, a nonprofit scientific research centre.

During her career, Rubin examined more than 200 galaxies.

 
Vera Rubin uses a measuring engine in the 1970s Photograph: Carnegie Institution/AP

Vera Rubin uses a measuring engine in the 1970s.  Source – Carnegie Institution/AP

 

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1 year since Tim Peake’s Principia Mission Launch!

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It has been one year since Tim Peake’s Launch!
On the 15th of December 2015 Tim Peake launched into space, and many events went on around the UK!

Tim Peake Launch

It was a exciting day for many children and adults alike.
In sub-zero temperatures in Kazakhstan, Dallas Campbell reported live from the Soyuz rocket launch site.

Source – BBC

What a fantastic year Tim Peake has had, inspiring so many people with his amazing research on the ISS, His return to Earth, The fantastic Principia Tour, The Principia School Conferences and so much more!

Tim Peake!

1 year since Tim Peake’s Principia Mission Launch! Read More »

The UK has bought the capsule which took Tim Peake into space and returned him to Earth!

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The UK has bought the capsule which took Tim Peake into space and returned him to Earth!
The Capsule will go on display at the Science Museum in London early next year (2017)!

The Russian Soyuz TMA-19M craft has been refurbished, but is still slightly singed from re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

Major Peake told BBC News that he was “absolutely delighted” to hear his spacecraft would be brought to the UK.

“Hopefully it may act as an inspiration for the next generation of scientists and engineers” he said.

 “Flying into space is a huge privilege but it also comes with risk and one of the highest risk areas are launch into space and re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

The Soyuz spacecraft is designed to protect the crew from these harsh conditions.

Source - NASA/Bill Ingalls
Source – NASA/Bill Ingalls

So you get very attached to your spacecraft because it definitely does save your life.”

Britain’s first astronaut, Helen Sharman, said she hoped the acquisition would have an inspirational effect.

“I think it is a tremendous thing to have Tim’s capsule.  Not just a Soyuz capsule – but it is Tim’s.  The fact that we know that our astronaut was actually inside it – he physically sweated inside that suit, he looked outside of that window and saw what it was like to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere – it really provides us with the link to our own astronauts,” she told BBC News.

The space suit used by Helen Sharman on her mission to the Mir space station in 1991 is on display at the Science Museum.

She said that it was important to have real artefacts that had actually been in orbit for people in the UK to view.

“Even now, 25 years after my space flight, people want to touch me even though every cell in body has probably regenerated” she said.

“It is really significant (having Tim’s Soyuz in the UK). It is not a mock up, it is not a simulator, it is not someone else’s Soyuz. The fact that our own astronaut actually did things inside provides us with a connection to human spaceflight.

“It might only be psychological as it will look very similar to other Soyuz spacecrafts that have actually re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, but it’s not – this is Tim’s.”

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