作為2009國際天文年的其中一個基礎(chǔ)項(xiàng)目，“她是天文學(xué)家”(She is an Astronomer: breaking down misconceptions)致力于推動天文學(xué)領(lǐng)域的性別平等。一直以來，女性天文學(xué)家對天文學(xué)作出了極大貢獻(xiàn)，然而為人熟知的少之又少。在她們當(dāng)中最不可忽略的當(dāng)數(shù)美國第一位女性天文學(xué)家瑪麗亞·米切爾?？梢哉f，現(xiàn)今有許多女性活躍于美國天文界，或多或少要?dú)w功于這位長期投身于天文事業(yè)的女性。

October 1st， 1847

In 1847， 29-year-old Maria Mitchell stood on the roof of her parents’ Nantucket home， focusing her telescope on a faraway star. Suddenly she realized that the blurry light was not a star at all， but a comet.

The first person to record a comet sighting， she immediately captured the imagination of America and of the world. In 1865， she was appointed the first professor at the newly founded Vassar College in Poughkeepsie， New York. She would live， study， and teach there for the next 23 years. Aware of her status as a pioneer woman scientist， Maria Mitchell became an active supporter of the woman’s rights movement. She continued her astronomical research until her death in 1888.

1847年10月1日

1847年，29歲的瑪麗亞·米切爾站在位于(美國馬薩諸塞州)楠塔基特島的父母家的天臺上，用望遠(yuǎn)鏡注視著一顆遙遠(yuǎn)的星星。突然，她發(fā)現(xiàn)那點(diǎn)模糊的光根本不是一顆星星，而是一顆彗星。作為第一個寫下彗星目擊記錄的人，瑪麗亞·米切爾立刻引起了美國以及全世界的關(guān)注。1865年，她被任命為紐約州波基普西市新成立的瓦薩學(xué)院的第一位教授。在接下來的23年里，她會在那里生活、學(xué)習(xí)和任教?，旣悂啞っ浊袪栆庾R到自己是女性科學(xué)家的先驅(qū)者，積極地支持女權(quán)運(yùn)動。直到1888年去世為止，她一直堅(jiān)持不懈地進(jìn)行天文學(xué)研究。

The evening of October 1st， 1847 began as most evenings did for Maria Mitchell. From the small

1)observatory on the roof of her home in Nantucket， the 2)amateur astronomer “swept” the night sky， as was her habit， searching for anything new or different.

At 10:30 that night， Maria spotted a blurry， 3)fuzzy body in the upper right hand corner of her telescope’s field.

She ran downstairs to tell her father， a cashier at the Nantucket Pacific Bank and a skilled amateur astronomer himself. William Mitchell followed his daughter to the rooftop， where he carefully compared the small object in the telescope with the stars near it and the 4)chart on the table. He confirmed what Maria had 5)suspected: she had discovered a comet.

Once reported to and 6)acknowledged by leading astronomers， the comet was named in her honor， 7)propelling her to the forefront of 8)contemporary

astronomy and changing the course of her life dramatically. Almost overnight， she was transformed from a bookish librarian and amateur 9)stargazer into “the Lady Astronomer，” a 10)quasi-celebrity whose story was told and retold in newspapers across America.

The discovery of a comet was not a particularly unusual event in the 19th century， but female astronomers were very rare， and Maria Mitchell captured the public’s imagination. Frederic Ⅶ， the King of Denmark， presented her with a gold medal to honor her achievement. She was the first woman elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1848 and the first 11)admitted to the Association for the Advancement of Science in 1850.

Maria Mitchell’s achievement would not have surprised her parents. Born in Nantucket on August 1st， 1818， the third of ten children， she 12)demonstrated from a young age both a love of stars and a talent for mathematics. Recognizing his daughter’s talent， her father gave her the best scientific education he could.

In 1836， Maria went to work as the librarian at the newly opened Nantucket 13)Atheneum， a position

she would hold for the next 20 years. She 14)took

advantage of the institution’s collections to give herself the 15)equivalent of a college education; she taught herself mathematics， including 16)calculus， and the most advanced astronomy of her day. Her

discovery of the comet was due as much to the years she spent studying in the atheneum and working with her father’s telescope as it was to good luck.

In 1862 she was invited to join the 17)faculty of Vassar Female College， the first college in the country exclusively for women. Backed by wealthy 18)brewer Matthew Vassar， the institution was still in the early stages of development. Vassar decided that Maria Mitchell should serve as the college’s first professor of astronomy. He was especially eager to add a woman to the faculty. “My desire is now and always has been，” he wrote in 1864， “to make our college， not only a college to educate women， but a college of instruction by women.” The Civil War 19)delayed construction. Vassar did not admit its first students until September 1865.

Vassar provided Mitchell with a brand-new， 20)state-of-the-art observatory. She became known as an 21)exacting teacher who insisted on 22)accuracy. She was impatient with even the slightest carelessness， often 23)lecturing students for 24)ignoring one-hundredth of a second in an astronomical calculation. Yet Maria Mitchell inspired great respect in her students， some of whom discovered comets and 25)nebulas themselves.

Mitchell understood the significance of her position as a pioneer in women’s education and became an 26)advocate for woman’s rights. She once said， “I wish， we could give to every woman who has a 27)novel theory dear to her soul for the improvement of the world， a chance to work out her theory in real life.” In 1875， she was elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Women.

Poor health forced Mitchell to 28)resign from Vassar in 1888 at the age of 70. She moved to Lynn and attempted to continue her research there， but the observatory she had constructed was more of a 29)morale 30)booster than anything else. Her condition quickly 31)deteriorated， and she died on June 28th， 1889.

1847年10月1日，對瑪麗亞·米切爾而言，夜晚一如往常地降臨。其位于楠塔基特島的家里的天臺上有一座小小的天文臺;從這里“掃視”夜空是這位業(yè)余天文愛好者的習(xí)慣，她期待發(fā)現(xiàn)一些沒見過或不同尋常的東西。那天晚上10點(diǎn)30分，瑪麗亞在望遠(yuǎn)鏡視野區(qū)域的右上角發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個模糊不清的

物體。

她跑下樓去告訴父親。她的父親

威廉·米切爾是楠塔基特太平洋銀行的一名出納員，本身也是一位資深的業(yè)余天文愛好者。威廉跟著女兒來到天臺，一邊仔細(xì)比較望遠(yuǎn)鏡里的這顆細(xì)小物體與附近的星星有什么不同，一邊對照桌上的星空圖。他肯定了瑪麗亞的猜測:她剛剛發(fā)現(xiàn)了一顆

彗星。

在向權(quán)威天文學(xué)家報告并獲得承認(rèn)之后，這顆彗星以她的名字命名。這一下子把她推到了當(dāng)時天文學(xué)界的最前沿，并從此大大改變了她的人生。幾乎一夜之間，她從一名書呆子氣的圖書管理員和業(yè)余觀星者搖身一變，成了“天文學(xué)家女士”這樣的準(zhǔn)名人，她的故事被美國各地的報紙爭相報導(dǎo)。

其實(shí)在19世紀(jì)，發(fā)現(xiàn)彗星并非一件不同尋常的事情，但由于女性天文學(xué)家屈指可數(shù)，瑪麗亞·米切爾便一下子激起了大眾的諸多猜測。丹麥國王弗雷德里克七世還為她頒發(fā)了一枚金牌，以紀(jì)念她的成就。1848年，她成為入選美國藝術(shù)與科學(xué)學(xué)院的第一名女性成員;繼而在1850年，她成為進(jìn)入美國科學(xué)促進(jìn)協(xié)會的首位

女性。

瑪麗亞·米切爾的成就并沒有出乎其父母的預(yù)料。1818年8月1日，她出生于楠塔基特島，在家中十個孩子里排行第三，從小就流露出對星星的熱愛以及數(shù)學(xué)天賦。她的父親發(fā)現(xiàn)了女兒的天分，于是竭盡所能為她提供最好的科學(xué)教育。

1836年，瑪麗亞開始在新開的楠塔基特圖書館當(dāng)圖書管理員，并在這個崗位上工作了20年。利用圖書館的藏書，她自學(xué)了相當(dāng)于大學(xué)水平的教育;她自學(xué)數(shù)學(xué)，當(dāng)中包括微積分和當(dāng)時最先進(jìn)的天文學(xué)知識。她能夠發(fā)現(xiàn)彗星，雖然不乏運(yùn)氣，但也離不開多年來在圖書館的自學(xué)以及用父親的望遠(yuǎn)鏡進(jìn)行的長期觀察。

1862年，她受邀加入瓦薩女子學(xué)院。這是美國第一所只招收女學(xué)生的學(xué)院，由富有的啤酒制造商馬修·瓦薩贊助。當(dāng)時這所學(xué)院還處于發(fā)展初期，瓦薩決定由瑪麗亞·米

切爾擔(dān)任學(xué)院的第一位天文學(xué)教授。他特別希望能夠?yàn)榻搪毴藛T隊(duì)伍引入一名女性?！拔椰F(xiàn)在，以及一貫以來的愿望，”他在1864年寫道，“就是讓我們的學(xué)院不僅能成為一所教育女性的學(xué)院，而且還是由女性來執(zhí)教的學(xué)院。”然而，美國內(nèi)戰(zhàn)推遲了學(xué)院的建設(shè)。直到1865年9月，瓦薩學(xué)院才開始接收第一批學(xué)生。

瓦薩為米切爾提供了當(dāng)時最先進(jìn)的嶄新天文臺。米切爾堅(jiān)持強(qiáng)調(diào)準(zhǔn)確性，成為有名的嚴(yán)師。即便是最細(xì)微的粗心也會令她失去耐性，還經(jīng)常為在天文計(jì)算中忽略了百分之一秒的誤差而訓(xùn)誡學(xué)生。雖然如此，學(xué)生們對瑪麗亞·米切爾仍然懷有極大的敬意，當(dāng)中一些也成為了彗星和星云的發(fā)現(xiàn)者。

米切爾知道自己作為女性教育先驅(qū)者這一身份的意義，成為了女性權(quán)利的倡議者。她曾經(jīng)說過:“一些女性真摯懇切地懷抱一個改善世界的新奇理論，我希望我們能給每一位這樣的女性一個機(jī)會，讓她能夠在現(xiàn)實(shí)中將其理論付諸實(shí)踐?！?875年，她當(dāng)選為美國婦女進(jìn)步協(xié)會的主席。

1888年，惡劣的健康狀況迫使年屆七十的米切爾從瓦薩學(xué)院退休。她隨后搬到林恩，打算在那里繼續(xù)其研究，然而她在那里建造的天文臺只不過是一個振奮士氣的產(chǎn)物。她的健康狀況迅速惡化，于1889年6月28日逝世。