America's first professional female astronomer named the comet her discovered: Who is Maria Mitchell?

Maria Mitchell was born on August 1, 1818, in Nantucket, Massachusetts. She was born the third of ten children to her mother, library worker Lydia Coleman Mitchell, and father, teacher and amateur astronomer William Mitchell. Mitchell and her siblings grew up in the Quaker religion, with principles that value education and work. Her father educated her children in nature and astronomy and gave them access to a variety of information through her mother's work in the library. Showing both interest and talent, particularly in astronomy and advanced mathematics, Mitchell was taught by her father to operate many astronomical instruments, including the stopwatch, sextant, simple refracting telescope, and the Dolland telescope.

Educated at Elizabeth Gardner's junior school as a child, Mitchell later enrolled in Northern Grammar school. Her father taught Mitchell astronomy at home using her personal telescope. At the age of 12, Mitchell also helped her father calculate the exact moment of the solar eclipse in 1831.

Then, by the age of 16, she was enrolled in Unitarian pastor Cyrus Peirce's ladies' school. She then served as a teaching assistant at that school before opening her own school in 1835. Mitchell developed and advanced experimental teaching methods that she applied in future teaching positions. At a time when local public schools were still discriminatory, Mitchell allowed children of color to attend her school, a controversial move.

In 1836, Mitchell began working as the first librarian of the Nantucket Atheneum, and held this position for 20 years. At the same time, she assisted her father in many astronomical observations and geographical calculations and continued her own education. Mitchell worked with her father at a small observatory built on the roof of a building. In addition to searching for nebulae and binary stars, the duo tracked latitude and longitude by calculating the heights of the stars and the cusps and occultations of the moon, respectively.

At 10:50 pm on October 1, 1847, Mitchell discovered the star "Comet 1847 VI" (modern name C/1847 T1) using a Dollond refracting telescope. Noticing that the object was flying across the sky in an area where it saw no other activity, Mitchell thought it was a comet. This star later became known as "Mrs. Mitchell's Comet".

The following year, Mitchell was honored with a gold medal by King Christian VIII of Denmark for her discovery. Thus, she made her mark in history as the first American to receive this medal and the first woman to receive an award in astronomy. Within a decade of her discovery, Mitchell became famous for the hundreds of newspaper articles she wrote.

In 1849, Mitchell took a position in computer and field research for the U.S. Coast Survey. Her job was to monitor the movements of the planets, especially Venus, and to compile tables of their positions to assist sailors in navigation. In 1850, Mitchell joined the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Traveling to Europe in 1857, Mitchell visited the observatories of European astronomers Sir John, Caroline Herschel and Mary Somerville while abroad. She also interviewed many natural philosophers. Mitchell, who never married in her life, generally remained close to her immediate family.

Although Mitchell had no college education, she was appointed professor of astronomy at Vassar College in 1865. Thus, she became the first female professor of astronomy, and Mitchell was the first person appointed to the faculty. She came to this post as director of the Vassar College Observatory, where she had been involved for over two decades. Thanks to Mitchell's guidance, the college enrolled more math and astronomy students than Harvard University from 1865 to 1888. In 1869, Mitchell became one of the first women elected to the American Philosophical Society. Additionally, Mitchell has received honorary degrees from Hanover College, Columbia University, and Rutgers Women's College.

With a wide variety of research interests, Mitchell has photographed planets such as Jupiter and Saturn, as well as their moons, and has studied nebulae, binary stars, and solar eclipses. Mitchell also developed theories such as the rotation of one star around another in binary star formations, and the influence of distance and chemical composition on star color variation. Although she began visually recording sunspots in 1868, Mitchell and her students began photographing the spots in 1873. These photographs became the first regular photographs of the sun, and it was Mitchell's way of discovering the hypothesis that the sun had gaps in its surface.

As a professor, dealing with many social issues, particularly women's suffrage and education, Mitchell also befriended various suffragists. Joining the national women's movement in 1873, Mitchell pioneered the founding of the "Association for the Advancement of Women" (AAW), a group devoted to educational reform and the promotion of women in higher education.

After teaching for a while, Mitchell said that despite her reputation and experience, she was paid less than many young male professors. They insisted on a salary increase with Alida Avery, the only other woman on the faculty, and they won. She continued to teach at the college until her retirement in 1888.

Mitchell served as vice president of the "Association for the Advancement of Women" in 1875 and 1876. She then resigned to form and lead a special "Science Committee" to analyze and support women's progress in this field. She continued this duty until her death in 1889.

On June 28, 1889, 70-year-old Mitchell died of brain disease in Massachusetts. After her death, an organization called the "Maria Mitchell Society" was founded in Nantucket to protect the sciences and studies on the island. The association took on the task of running the Maria Mitchell House Museum and an observatory in her honor, the Maria Mitchell Observatory.

In 1989 Mitchell was honored by the National Women's History Project with the National Women's History Month Honor Award, and in 1994 was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. A crater on the moon was also named in honor of Micthell. On August 1, 2013, the search engine Google honored Maria Mitchell by commemorating Maria Mitchell with a "Google Doodle" that caricatured her searching for comets with a telescope on top of a roof.