Antonia Maury
Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Maury (March 21, 1866 – January 8, 1952) was an American astronomer who was the first to detect and calculate the orbit of a spectroscopic binary. She published an important early catalog of stellar spectra using her own system of stellar classification, which was later adopted by the International Astronomical Union. She also spent many years studying the binary star Beta Lyrae. Maury was part of the Harvard Computers, a group of female astronomers and human computers at the Harvard College Observatory.
Antonia Maury | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 21, 1866 Cold Spring, New York |
| Died | January 8, 1952 (aged 85) Dobbs Ferry, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Vassar College |
| Awards | Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy (1943) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | Harvard College Observatory |
| Academic advisors | Maria Mitchell |
Antonia Maury was awarded the Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy in 1943. William Wilson Morgan, one of the developers of the MK system of stellar classification, which builds upon her work, has said that he considers Antonia Maury "for me, the single greatest mind that has ever engaged itself in the field of the morphology of stellar spectra."