Idaho Skies Transcript for May 20th and 21st

RACHEL
Welcome to Idaho Skies for May 20th and 21st. We’re your hosts, Rachel…

PAUL
…and Paul.

RACHEL
Today we celebrate astronomer Williamina Fleming.

PAUL
She was born in Scotland on May 15th, 1857 and died in the United States on May 21st, 1911. She started working as a maid at the Harvard Observatory at age 21. The observatory’s director later assigned her to clerical work and then finally as a computer. In the late 19th century, computers were people, usually women, who performed mathematical calculations for scientists. 

RACHEL
Astronomers at the time were trying to create a classification scheme for stars. There isn’t enough information in just the color of a star, but there is if you split its colors up with a spectroscope. So astronomers spent minutes and even hours photographing stars though a spectroscope. 

PAUL
The lines appearing in a star’s spectrum indicates the elements in its outer atmosphere. There’s also information on the star’s surface temperature buried within its spectra. However, astronomers needed a meaningful way to classify these spectra. And Ms. Fleming determined to way to do this based on the amount of hydrogen displayed in each star’s spectra. 

RACHEL
Willimina also famous to discovering a very faint star that was intensely hot. Hot stars tend to be bright stars. Since it wasn’t bright, the star had to be very small. On the order of planet small. These dense white-hot stars were eventually named white dwarfs and they represent the end of life for low mass stars like the sun.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the 20th and 21st of May.

RACHEL
Be sure to read our blog for additional information. It’s at idahoskies.blogspot.com

For Idaho Skies this is Rachel…

PAUL
…and Paul.

RACHEL
Dark skies and bright stars.