Astronomy - USA (2022-06)

OUR FEBRUARY 2022 ISSUEfeatured an article by Michael E. Bakich

called “Meet 20 Great Astronomers.” In it, Bakich wrote, “I love ranked lists

because they get me thinking. I hope this list does the same for you.”

Our readers clearly had many thoughts! We received more email about this

story than anything else we’ve run in the last few years, so we’ve decided to turn

the whole Astro Letters page over to your responses this month. Who should

have been on the list? Who shouldn’t have? Here’s what your fellow readers think.

List misses

6 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2022

ASTRO LETTERS

Moon guide

I would like to add an honorable mention to your list

of great astronomers: Dr. Dinsmore Alter. Dr. Alter

was a longtime director of Griffith Observatory in Los

Angeles. He was the editor of the Lunar Atlas that was

prepared by the Space Sciences Laboratory of the Space

Division of North American Aviation, and used by the

Apollo program. The Soviets, who photographed the far-

side of the Moon, honored Dr. Alter by naming a crater

after him. — Jim Baylor, Martinez, CA

High honors

According to my research, Maria Mitchell was not the

first woman to win an astronomy-related award: Caroline

Herschel was presented a gold medal on Feb. 8, 1828, by

the Astronomical Society of London. She was also the

first woman to be salaried as an astronomer, and in 1832

was awarded a medal by the king of Denmark — before

Mitchell received hers. In 1835, she received an honorary

membership in the Royal Astronomical Society. Caroline

started out her life as her mother’s scullery maid and

ended up as a woman who was treated as an equal by men

of science, who called her “my sister in astronomy” and

“priestess of the heavens.” — K. Lynn King, Wilmington, DE

Laying the groundwork

I was wondering if your list of contributing physicists

might expand to include Hans Bethe? It seems to me

that he laid the essential groundwork for the work by

Fred Hoyle that really opened up the science of nuclear

synthesis. — Andy Werbeck, Sebastopol, CA

Worthy of note

Whoa! What about Vera Rubin? She was denied a Nobel

Prize and now denied inclusion on your list. I’m not sure

which was the greater insult. — David Pippin, Dearborn, MO

Keys to success

I was sorry the article on 20 great astronomers through

the ages did not mention Vera Rubin and Caroline

Herschel. Dr. Rubin’s measurements of the speeds at

which stars orbit around galactic centers provided evi-

dence supporting the theories on dark matter, a game

changer in the field of cosmology. Herschel was the first

woman to discover a comet and cataloged 2,500 nebu-

lae and many star clusters, adding to the work of John

Flamsteed and her own brother. — Paul Warms, Niantic, CT

Father of the Big Bang

And where was Rev. Georges Lemaître, the originator of

the Big Bang theory? How Michael Bakich could have

overlooked one of the greatest minds in astronomy is

completely beyond me! — Bill Hebenstreit, Montgomery, TX

I enjoyed the February

2022 article on the 20

greatest astronomers of

all time, but I would have

included Edwin Hubble,

Henrietta Leavitt, and

Vera Rubin.

— Charles Ballard

You include such

noteworthy figures as

Clyde Tombaugh (one

major discovery),

George Ellery Hale

(primarily a financier), and

Maria Mitchell (one comet

discovered), and yet make

no mention of either

Caroline Herschel (eight

comets, dozens of double

stars and nebulae and the

original creator/editor of

the General Catalog) or

of Edwin Hubble, whose

observations of Cepheid

variables in the 1920s led

directly to our modern

understanding of our

place in the cosmos?

— Dan Young

I can’t quite wrap my head

around Michael Bakich’s

exclusion of Edwin Hubble

from his list of top 20 great

astronomers. Hubble’s

work fundamentally

changed the scientific

view of the universe and

cosmology.

— Ranny Heflin

Edwin Hubble laid the

foundation for much of the

astronomy of the past

100 years — that is why a

certain telescope bears

his name. To omit Hubble

from your top 20 is like

listing the top inventors

without Thomas Edison.

— James Witker

I was surprised that

Edwin Hubble and

Ejnar Hertzsprung and

Henry Norris Russell were

not on the list, while

Claude Tombaugh was. I

would claim that the H-R

diagram and proving the

existence of galaxies

beyond our own and the

expansion of the universe

are more important to

astronomy than the

discovery of Pluto.

— Eric Sieverling

I think it safe to say that

a weighty oversight was

made by leaving Edwin

Hubble off of the list. In

fact, I would put Hubble

at No. 2, right behind

Galileo as certainly one

of the greatest.

— Edward Rosenblatt

I enjoy your magazine

and found Michael

Bakich’s list of 20 great

astronomers compelling.

However, I don’t

understand how Edwin

Hubble wasn’t included.

— Robert Jump

No Edwin Hubble? This

author should be shunned

by the astronomical

community and never

be published again!

— Thomas Kehl

The winner?

Caroline Herschel

JOSEPH BROWN/

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Edwin Hubble

JOHAN HAGEMEYER/

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Henrietta Leavitt

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Vera Rubin

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We welcome your comments at Astronomy Letters, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187; or email to [email protected].

Please include your name, city, state, and country. Letters may be edited for space and clarity.

While a wide range of astronomers were mentioned

as deserving of being on the list, and some, like

Caroline Herschel and Vera Rubin, came up several

times, one person’s name appeared in our inbox over

and over (and over) again. Who was the scientist

whose exclusion from Bakich’s rankings drew the

most ire? Read on.