Famous scientists

KS3 Science Article

Nancy G. Roman

Nancy Grace Roman was a American astronomer born on May 16th, 1925, and she passed away on December 26th, 2018. She was part of the planning of the Hubble Space Telescope, which gave her the nickname ‘Mother of Hubble’. In early November of 2017, Lego released a ‘Women of NASA’ set, which included Nancy, along with 3 others.

In the set, she’s pictured with the Hubble Space Telescope and a planetary nebula photo.

Her interest in Astronomy started to show when she was 11 years old, by forming an Astronomy club. By high school, she knew she wanted to carry on Astronomy later in life.

She attended Swarthmore College in 1946, receiving a bachelor of arts in Astronomy. She then received her PhD at the University of Chicago, also in Astronomy.

Whilst studying in college and university, she worked at the Sproul Observatory and the Yerkes Observatory. She then, after finishing her degrees, worked in a research position at the McDonald Observatory.

She was approached by Jack Clark at a lecture by Harold Urey, who asked if she knew anyone interested in building a program for NASA in space astronomy. She thought that was a hint to apply, and so she did. She got the job, becoming the first chief of astronomy at NASA’s Office of Space Science. She set up many programs at NASA, but probably the most famous program was the Hubble Space Telescope. Nancy was involved throughout the program, from early planning to the construction. Because of these contributions, she earned the nickname ‘Mother of Hubble’.

The Hubble Telescope allows everyone to access and use NASA’s data and images for any purpose. It allows scientists to do lots of research into the universe. One of Hubble’s most famous images is the ‘Pillars of Creation’ image.

She worked in NASA from 1959 to 1979, and then worked for some contractors who supported the Goddard Space Flight Center, and finally as a consultant for ORI, Inc. from 1980 to 1988.

By Martha Blackham 8N.