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Revision as of 16:18, 20 February 2013
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Born | July 23, 1928 |
Alma mater | Georgetown University |
Known for | Galaxy rotation problem |
Awards | Bruce Medal, Dickson Prize in Science, Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, National Medal of Science |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Astronomy |
Institutions | Georgetown University, Carnegie Institution of Washington |
Thesis | (1954) |
Notable students | Sandra Faber |
Vera Cooper Rubin (born 1928) is an American astronomer. She pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates and uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted angular motion of galaxies and the observed motion, by studying galaxy rotation curves. This phenomenon became known as the galaxy rotation problem; attempts to explain it led to the theory of dark matter.
Vera Rubin can be seen on the BBC documentary Most of Our Universe is Missing.[1]
Scientific work
Currently, the theory of dark matter is the most popular candidate for explaining the galaxy rotation problem. The alternative theory of MOND (Modified Newtonian Dynamics) has little support in the community. Rubin, however, supports the MOND approach, stating "If I could have my pick, I would like to learn that Newton's laws must be modified in order to correctly describe gravitational interactions at large distances. That's more appealing than a universe filled with a new kind of sub-nuclear particle."[2]
After she had earned an A.B. from Vassar College (1948), she tried to enroll at Princeton but never received their graduate catalog as women there were not allowed in the graduate astronomy program until 1975.[3] She applied to Cornell University, where she studied physics under Philip Morrison, Richard Feynman, and Hans Bethe. There she earned an M.A. in 1951. Then in 1954 at Georgetown University she earned a Ph.D.
Vera Rubin also has honorary Doctors of Science degrees from numerous universities, including Harvard and Yale. Rubin is currently a research astronomer at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. She is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. So far she has co-authored 114 peer reviewed research papers.
She also served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as Society for Science & the Public, from 2002-2008.
Personal
All four of her children have earned Ph.D.s in the natural sciences or mathematics: David (1950), Ph.D. geology, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey; Judith Young (1952), Ph.D. cosmic-ray physics, an astronomer at the University of Massachusetts; Karl (1956), Ph.D. mathematics, a mathematician at the University of California at Irvine; and Allan (1960), Ph.D. geology, a geologist at Princeton University.
Religious views
Rubin is an observant Jew, and sees no conflict between science and religion. In an interview, she stated: "In my own life, my science and my religion are separate. I'm Jewish, and so religion to me is a kind of moral code and a kind of history. I try to do my science in a moral way, and, I believe that, ideally, science should be looked upon as something that helps us understand our role in the universe."[4]
Publications
Articles
- Rubin, Vera C. (1970). "Rotation of the Andromeda Nebula from a Spectroscopic Survey of Emission Regions". The Astrophysical Journal. 159: 379. doi:10.1086/150317.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - Rubin, V. C. (1976). "Motion of the Galaxy and the local group determined from the velocity anisotropy of distant SC I galaxies. I - The data". The Astronomical Journal. 81: 687. doi:10.1086/111942.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - Rubin, V. C. (1980). "Rotational properties of 21 SC galaxies with a large range of luminosities and radii, from NGC 4605 /R = 4kpc/ to UGC 2885 /R = 122 kpc/". The Astrophysical Journal. 238: 471. doi:10.1086/158003.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - Rubin, V. C. (1985). "Rotation velocities of 16 SA galaxies and a comparison of Sa, Sb, and SC rotation properties". The Astrophysical Journal. 289: 81. doi:10.1086/162866.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - Rubin, Vera C. (1992). "Cospatial counterrotating stellar disks in the Virgo E7/S0 galaxy NGC 4550". The Astrophysical Journal. 394: L9. doi:10.1086/186460.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - Rubin, Vera C. (1995). "A Century of Galaxy Spectroscopy". The Astrophysical Journal. 451: 419. doi:10.1086/176230.
Books
- Rubin, Vera (1997). Bright galaxies, dark matters. Woodbury, NY: AIP Press. ISBN 1-56396-231-4.
Honors
Awards
- Dickson Prize for Science
- National Medal of Science (1993)
- Henry Norris Russell Lectureship in 1994
- Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1996
- She was only the second female recipient of this medal, the first being Caroline Herschel in 1828.
- Gruber Cosmology Prize by the Peter Gruber Foundation (2002)
- Bruce Medal in 2003
- James Craig Watson Medal in 2004
- Richtmyer Memorial Award given annually by the American Association of Physics Teachers in 2008/9.
- Adler Planetarium Women in Space Science Award in 2009
- American University Honorary Doctor of Science in 2011
Named after her
In popular culture
- In the 1st episode of the 22nd Season of The Simpsons, Milhouse lists "Vers Rubin" (sic) as his pick for the 2010 Physics Nobel prize.
Notes
- ^ "Most of Our Universe is Missing". BBC Science & Nature: TV & Radio Follow-Up. BBC. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
- ^ Brooks, Michael (19 March 2005). "13 things that do not make sense". New Scientist. Reed Business Information, Ltd. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
- ^ "Vera Rubin and Dark Matter". American Museum of Natural History. 2000. Retrieved 2011-03-21.
- ^ Mayer, Gabriel (December 1–7, 1996). "Pontifical Science Academy Banks on Stellar Cast". National Catholic Register. Eternal Word Television Network. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
Further reading
- Irion, R. (2002). "VERA RUBIN PROFILE: The Bright Face Behind the Dark Sides of Galaxies". Science. 295 (5557): 960–961. doi:10.1126/science.295.5557.960.
- Lightman, Alan (1990). Origins : the lives and worlds of modern cosmologists. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674644700.
{{cite book}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - Overbye, Dennis (1991). Lonely hearts of the cosmos : the scientific quest for the secret of the universe (1st ed.). New York, NY: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780060159641.
- Peebles, P.J.E. (1993). Principles of physical cosmology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 9780691019338.
- Rubin, Robert (2006). "Vera Cooper Rubin (1928–)". In Byers, Nina; Williams, Gary (eds.). Out of the shadows : contributions of twentieth-century women to physics (Reprinted ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr. pp. 343–354. ISBN 978-0521821971.
- Rubin, Vera (1998). "Dark matter in the Universe" (PDF). Scientific American Presents (special quarterly issue: Magnificent Cosmos). 9 (1): 106&ngash, 110.
- Smith, Julian A. (1995). "Rubin, Vera". In McMurray, Emily J.; Kosek, Jane Kelly; Valade III, Roger M. (eds.). Notable twentieth-century scientists. Detroit, MI: Gale Research. ISBN 9780810391819.
External links
- Vera Rubin at Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington
- Vera Rubin in CWP at UCLA
- Vera Rubin's Dark Universe
- Vera Rubin and Dark Matter, American Museum of Natural History
- Vera Rubin at Peter Gruber Foundation
- Astronomical Society of the Pacific: Women in Astronomy
- Lake Afton Public Observatory: Women in Astronomy
- Princeton University 2005 honorary degrees press release
- Oral History interview transcript with Vera Rubin 21 September 1995, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
- Adler Planetarium Women in Space Science Award
- 1928 births
- Living people
- American astronomers
- Cornell University alumni
- Georgetown University alumni
- Jewish American scientists
- Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
- Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- National Medal of Science laureates
- Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Vassar College alumni
- Women astronomers
- American women scientists
- Physicists
- Women physicists