In 1950, an astronomer at Yerkes Observatory published a paper connecting how stars move to how old they are, and gave us a new way to read the age of the galaxy itself.

Understanding her groundbreaking science explains why the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is hers in more than just name.

image credit: NASA

In 1925, a doctoral student at Harvard submitted a thesis that identified the most abundant elements in the Sun and, by extension, the universe.

The field’s arbiters told her it was almost certainly wrong, and she walked it back. But Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was right. And it took four years for the field to catch up to her.

image credit: Smithsonian Institution Archives