Robert McNees
Astronomer Nancy Grace Roman was born OTD in 1925.
After early work in spectral classification and galactic evolution, she became NASA's first Chief of Astronomy and did foundational work planning and overseeing development of the Hubble Space Telescope.
It's no exaggeration to say that her work made the Hubble possible.
Images: NASA
Robert McNees
Despite doing important work, Nancy Grace Roman left academia because she saw too many obstacles to a woman getting tenure as a research astronomer.
Instead, she worked at the Naval Research Laboratory, and then at NASA where she established the space astronomy program.
A few years ago, NASA decided the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (set to launch in themid-2020s) would be named the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, to honor her contributions to astronomy.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-telescope-named-for-mother-of-hubble-nancy-grace-roman/
Robert McNees
Again, the Hubble Space Telescope was made possible by the work of Nancy Grace Roman. If you’ve ever marveled at a fantastic Hubble image, you have Nancy Grace Roman to thank for it.
Images: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI
Robert McNees
Nancy Grace Roman passed away in 2018, on Christmas Day. Not too long before that she submitted a short memoir to Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
You can read the full thing here: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-astro-091918-104446#_i3
Robert McNees
In the “Honors” section of her Annual Reviews memoir, she talks about being recognized by various women’s organizations, and says that “by far the most fun” was being honored in the “Women of NASA” LEGO set created by Maia Portell Weinstock.
Robert McNees
Here is audio of Joss Bland-Hawthorn interviewing Nancy Grace Roman:
https://soundcloud.com/annualreviews/a-conversation-with-nancy-grace-roman
Robert McNees
And here is a short video about Nancy Grace Roman and her work on the Hubble Space Telescope, from the European Space Agency's “Hubblecast”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=d636nHFOcRI&feature=youtu.be
Kelly Lepo
@mcnees Here is a recent video about Nancy Grace Roman produced by STScI
https://youtu.be/3yK_EVdO1r4
Chirp! is a social network. It runs on GNU social, version 2.0.1-beta0, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
All Chirp! content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.