HENRITTA SWAN LEAVITT, AMERICAN ASTRONOMER DIED 1921 DECEMBER 12
HENRITTA SWAN LEAVITT, AMERICAN ASTRONOMER DIED 1921 DECEMBER 12 Henrietta Leavitt was an astronomer who opened the door to a dramatic enlargement in the size of the known universe. She found that a certain type of star, the Cepheid variable, pulses at a rate that’s related to its brightness. A Cepheid variable star’s pulse rate reveals the star’s true, fundamental brightness: the amount by which the star’s brightness is dimmed by distance allows that distance to be calculated. Beginnings Henrietta Swan Leavitt was born on July 4, 1868 in the town of Lancaster, Massachusetts, USA. Her father was George Roswell Leavitt, a doctor of divinity, who was a minister in the Congregational Church. Her mother was Henrietta Swan Kendrick. The Leavitt family was financially relatively prosperous. Henrietta was the eldest of seven children, two of whom died in infancy. Henrietta herself suffered ill-health for most of her 53 years. Her father’s church work kept the fami...