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This article is about the astronomer. For the anthropologist, see Vera D. Rubin. For the astronomical observatory, see Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

Vera Rubin
Photograph
Rubin in 2009
Born
Vera Florence Cooper

(1928-07-23)July 23, 1928
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedDecember 25, 2016(2016-12-25) (aged 88)
Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
Alma mater
Known for
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1948; died 2008)​
Children4
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy
Institutions
ThesisFluctuations in the Space Distribution of the Galaxies (1954)
Doctoral advisorGeorge Gamow
Other academic advisors
Notable students
Part of a series on
Physical cosmology
Full-sky image derived from nine years' WMAP data
Early universe
Backgrounds
Expansion · Future
Components · Structure
Components
Structure
Experiments
Scientists
Subject history

Vera Florence Cooper Rubin (/ˈruːbɪn/; July 23, 1928 – December 25, 2016) was an American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates.[1][2] She uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted and observed angular motion of galaxies by studying galactic rotation curves. Her work on the galaxy rotation problem was cited by others as evidence for the existence of dark matter.[3]

Honored throughout her lifetime for her work, she received the Bruce Medal, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, and the National Medal of Science, among others.[4] The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is named in her honor.[5] [6] Her legacy is described by The New York Times as "ushering in a Copernican-scale change" in cosmological theory.[1] Rubin is widely regarded as having been one of the select women in science who were overlooked for the Nobel Prize on the basis of gender discrimination.[7][8][9][10]

Rubin spent her life advocating for women in science, and was known for her mentorship of aspiring female astronomers.[4]

Early life and education

[edit]

Vera Florence Cooper was born on July 23, 1928, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the younger of two sisters. Her father, Philip Cooper, was an electrical engineer at Bell Telephone. Her mother, Rose (née Applebaum) had worked at Bell Telephone calculating "the costs of installing phone lines" prior to her marriage.[11]

The family moved to Washington, D.C., in 1938,[1] where ten-year-old Vera developed an interest in astronomy while watching the stars from her window.[1][12][13] "Even then I was more interested in the question than in the answer," she remembered. "I decided at an early age that we inhabit a very curious world."[14] She built a crude telescope out of cardboard with her father, and began to observe and track meteors.[15][16][17] She attended public school at the Coolidge Senior High School, graduating in 1944.[16]

Ignoring advice she had received from a high school science teacher to avoid a scientific career and become an artist,[1][15] the young aspiring astronomer chose instead to pursue her undergraduate education at Vassar College. Vassar, then an all-women's school, was famous for its association with the pioneering 19th century astronomer Maria Mitchell, discoverer of Comet 1847 VI (modern designation C/1847 T1) and a professor at Vassar from the time of the founding of its observatory in 1865.[1]

At Vassar College, Rubin was a member of the honors society Phi Beta Kappa.[18] She earned her bachelor's degree in astronomy in 1948.[15] Despite Vassar's historic reputation for groundbreaking science in the field, Rubin was the only graduate in astronomy that year.[1][6]

Graduate studies

[edit]

Rubin attempted to enroll in the astronomy program at Princeton, but was barred due to her gender (Princeton would retain the policy of gender discrimination against women in its astronomy department until 1975[6]).[1][4] She was accepted to Harvard's program, but declined the offer on the basis that she was getting married, and her future husband, a graduate student in physics, was based at Cornell University.[19]

Cornell was not known during this period for the excellence of its astronomy department, comprised as it was of only four members. It did, however, boast an excellent physics faculty, and much of the coursework for Rubin's degree was taught out of this department. Noted physicist Philip Morrison and future Nobelists Hans Bethe and Richard Feynman worked with Rubin during this period.[17][11]

At Cornell, she worked with astronomer Martha Carpenter on galactic dynamics and studied the motions of galaxies. From this work, Rubin made one of the first observations of deviations from Hubble flow (how galaxies move apart from one another).[4][15][20] Though her conclusions – that there was an orbital motion of galaxies around a particular pole – were later disproven, the idea that galaxies were moving held true and sparked further research.[15] Additionally, Rubin's research provided early evidence of the supergalactic plane.

This information and the data she compiled was controversial for their day. Against her advisors' hesitations, she gained permission to present at the annual meeting of American Astronomical Society. Not only was her material in a form that left it open to speculation that it was premature and incompletely supported, she had given birth to her first child three weeks previously and was not a member of the society.[21] These circumstances did not go unnoticed. Her presentation to the AAS in December of 1950 received front page headlines ("Young Mother Has Own Theory of Universe," read the lede, disseminated from an article in the Washington Post [22]). The talk received - to Rubin's personal recollection - universally negative feedback and the paper was not published.[17]

She completed her work at Cornell with the award of her 1951 master's degree.[16]

Rubin studied next at Georgetown University, where she earned her Ph.D. in 1954 (under George Gamow, who was nearby at George Washington University),[23] although much of her classwork was completed with Georgetownian Francis Heyden.[24] Her dissertation, completed in 1954, concluded that galaxies clumped together, rather than being randomly distributed through the universe, a controversial idea not pursued by others for two decades.[4][15][25][19]

Career

[edit]

For the next decade, Rubin held various short-term academic positions in the greater DC area. She served for a year as an instructor of Mathematics and Physics at Montgomery College, Maryland. Then from 1955 to 1965 she worked at Georgetown University as a research associate astronomer, lecturer (1959–1962), and finally, assistant professor of astronomy (1962–1965).[1][25]

In the latter position, from 1963, Rubin began a year-long collaboration with Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge, during which she made her first observations of the rotation of galaxies while using the McDonald Observatory's 82-inch telescope.[15]

She joined the Carnegie Institution of Washington (later called Carnegie Institution of Science) in 1965 as a staff member in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism.[1][25][26] There she met her long-time collaborator, instrument-maker Kent Ford.[15]

During her work at the Carnegie Institution, Rubin applied to become the first female astronomer permitted to observe at the Palomar Observatory in 1965.[27][1][4][28]

An initiating faculty member of the Vatican Observatory Summer School (1986), Rubin continued this relationship through subsequent decades, providing dedication remarks for the opening of the VATT, the the Vatican’s telescope on Mount Graham.[29]

A Senior Fellow in her faculty for many years, Rubin retired from the Carnegie Institute in 2014.[30]

Photo of Rubin adjusting part of a large telescope
Rubin in 1963 using Kitt Peak National Observatory's 36-inch telescope with Kent Ford's image tube spectrograph attached

Research

[edit]

At the Carnegie Institution, Rubin began work related to her controversial thesis regarding galaxy clusters with Ford,[25] making hundreds of observations using Ford's image-tube spectrograph.[31] This image intensifier allowed resolving the spectra of astronomical objects that were previously too dim for spectral analysis.[15][31] The Rubin–Ford effect, an apparent anisotropy in the expansion of the Universe on the scale of 100 million light years, was discovered through studies of spiral galaxies, particularly the Andromeda Galaxy, chosen for its brightness and proximity to Earth.[17][32] The idea of peculiar motion on this scale in the universe was a highly controversial proposition, which was first published in journals in 1976. It was dismissed by leading astronomers but ultimately shown to be valid.[4][17] The effect is now known as large scale streaming.[28] The pair also briefly studied quasars, which had been discovered in 1963 and were a popular topic of research.[15][17]

Wishing to avoid controversial areas of astronomy, including quasars and galactic motion, Rubin began to study the rotation and outer reaches of galaxies, an interest sparked by her collaboration with the Burbidges.[15] She investigated the rotation curves of spiral galaxies, again beginning with Andromeda, by looking at their outermost material. She observed flat rotation curves: the outermost components of the galaxy were moving as quickly as those close to the center.[33] She further uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted angular motion of galaxies based on the visible light and the observed motion.[34] Her research showed that spiral galaxies rotate quickly enough that they should fly apart, if the gravity of their constituent stars was all that was holding them together; because they stay intact, a large amount of unseen mass must be holding them together, a conundrum that became known as the galaxy rotation problem.[4][33]

Photo of Rubin adjusting part of a large telescope
Rubin measuring spectra in 1974 at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C.

Rubin's results came to be cited as evidence that spiral galaxies were surrounded by dark matter haloes.[35][4][15] Rubin's calculations showed that galaxies must contain at least five to ten times more mass than can be observed directly based on the light emitted by ordinary matter.[36][37] Rubin's results were confirmed over subsequent decades,[1] and became the first persuasive results supporting the theory of dark matter, initially proposed by Fritz Zwicky in the 1930s.[1][17][38] This data was confirmed by radio astronomers, the discovery of the cosmic microwave background, and images of gravitational lensing.[15][17] However, Rubin did not rule out[39] alternative models to dark matter also inspired by her measurements.[4] She and her research were discussed in the 1991 PBS series, The Astronomers.[40]

Another area of interest for Rubin was the phenomenon of counter-rotation in galaxies. Her discovery that some gas and stars moved in the opposite direction to the rotation of the rest of the galaxy challenged the prevailing theory that all of the material in a galaxy moved in the same direction, and provided the first evidence for galaxy mergers and the process by which galaxies initially formed.[28]

Rubin's perspective on the history of the work on galaxy movements was presented in a review, "One Hundred Years of Rotating Galaxies," for the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 2000. This was an adaptation of the lecture she gave in 1996 upon receiving the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, the second woman to be so honored, 168 years after Caroline Herschel received the Medal in 1828.[4][41]

Activism for women in astronomy

[edit]

During her work at the Carnegie Institution, Rubin applied to observe at the Palomar Observatory in 1965, despite the fact that the building did not have facilities for women. Reluctantly granted access, she was informed “your time on the observatory is limited, because we don’t have a women’s bathroom,"[42] a common period ruse to avoid allowing women access to these stations (Margaret Burbridge faced similar discrimination at the Carnegie a decade previous, when she gained access to the telescope at the Wilson Observatory via the pretense that husband Geoffrey was the operator). According to Carnegie president Eric Isaacs, Rubin "solved the problem pretty simply by cutting out a little paper skirt and taping it to the stick figure image of a man which was on the men’s room door. And she turned around and said, 'now you have a ladies' room' and then she got to work."[42]

Throughout her graduate studies, Rubin encountered discouraging sexism; in one incident she was not allowed to meet with her advisor in his office, because women were not allowed in that area of Georgetown, a Catholic university.[1][15] Motivated by her own battles to gain credibility in a field dominated by male astronomers, Rubin encouraged girls interested in investigating the universe to pursue their dreams. She was described by Sandra Faber and Neta Bahcall as one of the astronomers who paved the way for other women in the field, as a "guiding light" for those who wished to have families and careers in astronomy. Rebecca Oppenheimer also recalled Rubin's mentorship as important to her early career.[1][36][43][33][44]

Personal life

[edit]

Rubin married in 1948, when her husband, Robert Joshua Rubin, was a graduate student at Cornell University, and she herself had recently graduated from Vassar.[2][15] She was 23 years old and pregnant with her second child when she began her doctoral studies.[1][6]

By 1963, Rubin, working and with four children, was described as the sole member of Vassar's class of 1948 as having "come near to filling the Utopian aim of being a full-time professional in her field without, for the most part, putting her children into someone else's hands."[45] Rubin ascribed this characterization to the "unique part time full time" nature of her then position at Georgetown University.[45] Because she had young children, she did much of her work from home.[16]

All four of their children earned PhDs in the natural sciences or mathematics: David (born 1950), is a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey; Judith Young (1952–2014), was an astronomer at the University of Massachusetts; Karl (born 1956), is a mathematician at the University of California at Irvine; and Allan (born 1960), is a geologist at Princeton University.[13][15][44] Rubin's children recalled later in life that their mother made a life of science appear desirable and fun, which inspired them to become scientists themselves.[15]

Rubin was Jewish, and she shared that she saw no conflict between science and religion. In an interview, she said: "In my own life, my science and my religion are separate. I'm Jewish, and so religion to me is a kind of moral code and a kind of history. I try to do my science in a moral way, and, I believe that, ideally, science should be looked upon as something that helps us understand our role in the universe."[46]

Rubin's older sister, Ruth Cooper Burg, was an attorney who later worked as an administrative law judge in the United States Department of Defense.[12]

Rubin died on the night of December 25, 2016. She was memorialized by her colleagues at the Carnegie Institution, where she performed the bulk of her work and research, as a "national treasure."[6][36]

Legacy

[edit]

Women in Science Initiatives

[edit]

Throughout her life, Rubin faced discouraging comments on her choice of study but persevered, as she was supported by family and colleagues.[15][6] In addition to encouraging women in astronomy, she was a force for greater recognition of women in the sciences and for scientific literacy.[6][43][47]

When Rubin was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1981, she became only the second woman astronomer in its ranks (after her colleague Margaret Burbidge).[15] She, alongside Burbidge, advocated for more women to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), selected for review panels, and represented in academic searches. She said that despite her own election to the NAS, she continued to be dissatisfied with the low number of women who were elected each year, and she further said it was "the saddest part of [her] life".[15][17][28]

Cold Shoulder from the Nobel Committee

[edit]

Rubin is "widely thought to have been snubbed for the Nobel Prize."[48] In the decade following her death, there has been significant ongoing disagreement as to why Rubin's work was not recognized with a Nobel. Some assume it was "because of her gender,"[49] physicists such as Lisa Randall and Emily Levesque have argued that it was an oversight.[17][10] Others have argued that it was a "glaring ommission."[9] Discussion of the issue is continues, as posthumous honors and recognition (see below) have proliferated, and Rubin's name is commonly mentioned in articles listing the 20th century women scientists who missed out on scientific Nobels.[50][8][10][51][7]

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory and its target

Vera C. Rubin Observatory

[edit]
Telescope Mount Assembly of the 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope at Vera C. Rubin Observatory, under construction atop Cerro Pachón in Chile

On December 20, 2019, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope was renamed the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in recognition of Rubin's contributions to the study of dark matter and her outspoken advocacy for the equal treatment and representation of women in science.[51][52][53][54][55] The observatory is located a mountain in Cerro Pachón, Chile and observations will focus on the study of dark matter and dark energy. As of 2024, the extremely agile telescope is in place and full operation is expected within the next year[5]

Additional Recognition

[edit]
  • In 2002, Discover magazine recognized Rubin as one of the 50 most important women in science.[56]
  • On 6 November 2020, a satellite named after her (ÑuSat 18 or "Vera", COSPAR 2020-079K) was launched into space.
  • An area on Mars, Vera Rubin Ridge, is named after her and Asteroid 5726 Rubin was named in her honor.[57]

Media

[edit]
  • The Verubin Nebula which appears in Season Three of Star Trek: Discovery is named after Rubin.[63]
  • The Stuff Between the Stars: How Vera Rubin Discovered Most of the Universe is a children's book by Sandra Nickel and Aimee Sicuro.[64]
  • Rubin was featured in an animated segment of the 13th and final episode of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.[65]

Awards and honors

[edit]

Since her 1981 election as the "second woman ever" to the National Academy of Science,[66] Rubin and her work have received numerous accolades.

In addition to this list, Rubin was granted honorary doctorates from Harvard University,[28] Yale University,[28] Smith College,[28] Grinnell College,[28] and Princeton University (2005)[44]

Publications

[edit]

Books

[edit]
  • Rubin, Vera (1997). Bright Galaxies, Dark Matters. Masters of Modern Physics. Woodbury, New York City: Springer Verlag/AIP Press. ISBN 978-1563962318.[25]
  • Alan Lightman, Roberta Brawer (1992). Origins: The Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674644717.

Articles

[edit]

Rubin published over 150 scientific papers. The following are a selection of articles identified by the scientists and historians of the Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics project (CWP), as being representative of her most important writings.[4][25]

Quotations

[edit]

“Don’t let anyone keep you down for silly reasons such as who you are. And don’t worry about prizes and fame. The real prize is finding something new out there.”[83]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Overbye, Dennis (December 27, 2016). "Vera Rubin, 88, Dies; Opened Doors in Astronomy, and for Women". The New York Times. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  2. ^ a b Pinkerton, Byrd; Hassenfeld, Noam (August 17, 2021). "Astronomers were skeptical about dark matter — until Vera Rubin came along: She built a bullet-proof case for exploring the concept". Vox. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  3. ^ de Swart, Jaco; Bertone, Gianfranco; van Dongen, Jeroen (2017). "How dark matter came to matter". Nature Astronomy. 1 (59): 0059. arXiv:1703.00013. Bibcode:2017NatAs...1E..59D. doi:10.1038/s41550-017-0059. S2CID 119092226.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "1996 November 8 meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society". The Observatory. 117: 129–135. June 1997. Bibcode:1997Obs...117..129.
  5. ^ a b Falk, Dan. "This Revolutionary New Observatory Will Locate Threatening Asteroids and Millions of Galaxies: Beginning next year, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will use the world's largest digital camera to give us a whole new view of the universe". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved March 24, 2025.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Domonoske, Camila (December 26, 2016). "Vera Rubin, Who Confirmed Existence Of Dark Matter, Dies At 88". NPR News. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  7. ^ a b scientificinquirer (January 17, 2023). "REBEL, REBEL: Vera Rubin was overlooked by the Nobel Committee but revered by the rest of us. - Scientific Inquirer". scientificinquirer.com. Retrieved March 22, 2025.
  8. ^ a b Feltman, Rachel (December 27, 2016). "In memory of Vera Rubin, the woman the Nobel Prize forgot". Popular Science. Retrieved March 22, 2025.
  9. ^ a b Gamillo, Elizabeth (December 25, 2023). "Vera Rubin: Biography, history of the trailblazing astronomer". Astronomy Magazine. Retrieved March 22, 2025.
  10. ^ a b c Randall, Lisa (January 4, 2017). "Why Vera Rubin Deserved a Nobel". New York Times. Retrieved March 22, 2025.
  11. ^ a b Mitton, Jacqueline; Mitton, Simon (February 11, 2021). Vera Rubin: A Life. Harvard University Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-674-91919-8.
  12. ^ a b Bartusiak, Marcia (1993). Through a Universe Darkly: A Cosmic Tale of Ancient Ethers, Dark Matter, and the Fate of the Universe. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: HarperCollins Canada. pp. needed. ISBN 978-0060183103. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  13. ^ a b Larsen, Kristine (March 2009). "Vera Cooper Rubin". Jewish Women: A comprehensive historical encyclopedia. Brookline, MA: Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
  14. ^ "The Doyenne of Dark Matter". The Attic. August 2, 2019. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Irion, Robert (February 8, 2002). "The bright face behind the dark sides of galaxies". Science. 295 (5557): 960–961. doi:10.1126/science.295.5557.960. PMID 11834801. S2CID 41891881.
  16. ^ a b c d Schudel, Matt (December 26, 2016). "Vera Rubin, astronomer who proved existence of dark matter, dies at 88". Washington Post. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Scoles, Sarah (October 4, 2016). "How Vera Rubin Discovered Dark Matter". Astronomy Magazine. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  18. ^ "Vera Cooper Rubin: Shedding light on dark matter". Innovators. Vassar College. Archived from the original on March 6, 2019. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  19. ^ a b Popova, Maria (April 18, 2016). "Pioneering Astronomer Vera Rubin on Women in Science, Dark Matter, and Our Never-Ending Quest to Know the Universe". The Marginalian. Retrieved March 22, 2025.
  20. ^ "Vera Florence Cooper Rubin". The Bruce Medalists. Sonoma State University. Archived from the original on January 17, 2018. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  21. ^ Yeager, Ashley Jean (August 15, 2023). Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter, and Beyond: The Life of Astronomer Vera Rubin. MIT Press. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-262-54723-9.
  22. ^ Blakesee, Howard (December 30, 1950). "Young Mother Has Own Theory of Universe". Canandaigua Daily Messenger Newspaper Archives. p. 1. Retrieved March 22, 2025.
  23. ^ "Vera Rubin and Dark Matter". American Museum of Natural History. Cosmic Horizons Curriculum Collection.
  24. ^ "Vera Cooper Rubin". Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Women in Aviation and Space History. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  25. ^ a b c d e f g Johnson, Ben; Tsai, Meigy (2001). "Vera Cooper Rubin". In Turner, Jean; Byers, Nina (eds.). Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics (CWP). Los Angeles, CA: University of California. Archived from the original on April 24, 2013. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  26. ^ "Vera C. Rubin". Carnegie Institution: Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  27. ^ Feltman, Rachel (December 27, 2016). "In memory of Vera Rubin, the woman the Nobel Prize forgot". Popular Science. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  28. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Vera Rubin". The Gruber Foundation. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  29. ^ a b Consolmagno, Guy; Corbally, Chris (December 30, 2016). "Dr. Vera Rubin". Vatican Observatory. Retrieved March 25, 2025.
  30. ^ a b "Vera C. Rubin Photograph Collection, circa 1942-2012". Carnegie Science. Retrieved March 25, 2025.
  31. ^ a b "Kent Ford & Vera Rubin's Image Tube Spectrograph named in Smithsonian's "101 Objects that Made America"". DTM (Carnegie Science). November 26, 2013. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  32. ^ Ridpath, Ian, ed. (2016) [2012]. "Rubin-Ford Effect". A Dictionary of Astronomy (2nd, revised ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 406. ISBN 9780199609055. See also the publishers online entry.
  33. ^ a b c d Bahcall, Neta A. (February 28, 2017). "Vera C. Rubin: Pioneering American astronomer (1928–2016)". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (9): 2099–2100. Bibcode:2017PNAS..114.2099B. doi:10.1073/pnas.1701066114. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 5338491. PMID 28167783.
  34. ^ Tucker, Wallace; Tucker, Karen (1988). The Dark Matter. William Morrow. ISBN 9780688103880.
  35. ^ Rubin, Vera (December 1, 2006). "Seeing dark matter in the Andromeda galaxy". Physics Today. 59 (12): 8–9. Bibcode:2006PhT....59l...8R. doi:10.1063/1.2435662. ISSN 0031-9228. Our study was influential in the later conclusion that most of the matter in the universe is dark.
  36. ^ a b c d "Vera Rubin Who Confirmed "Dark Matter" Dies". Carnegie Science. December 26, 2016. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  37. ^ Randall, Lisa (2015). Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780062328502.
  38. ^ Peebles, P.J.E. (1993). Principles of Physical Cosmology. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691019338.
  39. ^ Rubin, Vera C. (2004). "A brief history of dark matter". In Livio, M. (ed.). The Dark Universe: Matter, Energy and Gravity. Space Telescope Science Institute Symposium Series. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–13. ISBN 978-1-139-44980-9. A few brave, smart cosmologists work to modify Newton's laws to account for the observations.
  40. ^ "The Astronomers Complete PBS Series on Astronomy". Internet Archive. March 25, 2023. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
  41. ^ Rubin, Vera (2000). "One Hundred Years of Rotating Galaxies" (PDF). Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 112 (June): 747–750. Bibcode:2000PASP..112..747R. doi:10.1086/316573. S2CID 122927800. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  42. ^ a b Isaacs, Eric. "Remembering Vera Rubin". carnegiescience.edu. Retrieved March 25, 2025.
  43. ^ a b Drake, Nadia (December 27, 2016). "Vera Rubin, Pioneering Astronomer, Dies at 88". National Geographic. Archived from the original on December 28, 2016. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  44. ^ a b c Bahcall, Neta A. (February 2, 2017). "Vera Rubin (1928–2016)". Nature. 542 (7639): 32. Bibcode:2017Natur.542...32B. doi:10.1038/542032a. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 28150763. S2CID 4464509.
  45. ^ a b Rifkin, Natalie Stone (June 1, 1963). "Trapped or Challenged? A Report on the Class of 1948". Poughkeepsie Vassar Alumnae Quarterly Newspaper Archives: 26.
  46. ^ Meyer, Gabriel (December 1–7, 1996). "Pontifical Science Academy Banks on Stellar Cast". Eternal Word Television Network. Retrieved October 19, 2010.
  47. ^ Grant, Andrew (December 27, 2016). "Vera Rubin in the pages of Physics Today". Physics Today (12): 12140. Bibcode:2016PhT..2016l2140G. doi:10.1063/pt.5.9080.
  48. ^ Harper, Arthur. "LibGuides: Women in STEM: Vera Rubin". guides.library.duq.edu. Retrieved March 24, 2025.
  49. ^ "Vera Rubin". Mothers in Science. May 6, 2020. Retrieved March 24, 2025.
  50. ^ Paul, Anna (October 7, 2018). "Five women who missed out on the Nobel prize". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved March 25, 2025.
  51. ^ a b Overbye, Dennis (January 11, 2020). "Vera Rubin Gets a Telescope of Her Own – The astronomer missed her Nobel Prize. But she now has a whole new observatory to her name". The New York Times. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
  52. ^ Johnson, Eddie Bernice (December 20, 2019). "H.R.3196 – 116th Congress (2019–2020): Vera C. Rubin Observatory Designation Act". www.congress.gov. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
  53. ^ "NSF-supported observatory renamed for astronomer Vera C. Rubin". www.nsf.gov. January 7, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
  54. ^ Koren, Marina (January 9, 2020). "An Influential Female Astronomer Is Getting Her Due". The Atlantic. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
  55. ^ "National Medal of Science 50th Anniversary: Vera Rubin (1928– )". Arlington, Virginia, US: National Science Foundation (NSF). 2016. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  56. ^ Svitil, Kathy (November 13, 2002). "The 50 Most Important Women in Science". Discover. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
  57. ^ Kremer, Ken (October 19, 2017). "Sky Pointing Curiosity Captures Breathtaking Vista of Mount Sharp and Crater Rim, Climbs Vera Rubin Seeking Hydrated Martian Minerals". Universe Today. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  58. ^ "United States Mint Announces 2025 American Women Quarters™ Program Coins". United States Mint. October 17, 2023. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  59. ^ Hagedoorn, Hilbert (June 2, 2024). "NVIDIA Confirms Next-Generation Architecture is based on (Vera) Rubin GPU". www.guru3d.com. Retrieved June 2, 2024.
  60. ^ "Vera Rubin Fellowship". Carnegie Science. January 25, 2017. Archived from the original on July 18, 2017. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  61. ^ "DDA's New Early Career Prize Named for Vera Rubin". American Astronomical Society. January 10, 2017. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  62. ^ "Vera Rubin Early Career Prize". Division on Dynamical Astronomy. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  63. ^ "Tweet of Erin Macdonald, PhD". January 11, 2021.
  64. ^ Nickel, Sandra (2021). The Stuff Between the Stars: How Vera Rubin Discovered Most of the Universe. Abrams. ISBN 978-1-4197-3626-1. OCLC 1176322396.
  65. ^ "Vera Rubin's Influential Work on Dark Matter is Highlighted in Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey". Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (DTM), Carnegie Institution of Washington. 2013. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  66. ^ "Vera Florence Cooper Rubin | Philadelphia Women's History Month All-Star". The Philadelphia Citizen. March 1, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2025.
  67. ^ "Lifetime Achievement Award". Archived from the original on November 4, 2013. Retrieved February 20, 2013.
  68. ^ "News – Carnegie Institution for Science". Carnegie Science. Archived from the original on June 12, 2012. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  69. ^ "James Craig Watson Medal". NAS. Archived from the original on July 23, 2013. Retrieved February 20, 2013.
  70. ^ "Vera Rubin Wins 2003 ASP Bruce Medal and Other ASP Award Winners". San Francisco, California, US: Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP). 2003. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  71. ^ "2002 Gruber Cosmology Prize". The Gruber Foundation. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
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  79. ^ "Jansky Lecture Redirect". Retrieved December 26, 2016.
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Further reading

[edit]
  • Mitton, Jacqueline; Mitton, Simon (2021). Vera Rubin: A Life. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press. ISBN 978-0-67-491919-8.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vera Rubin.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Vera Rubin.
  • Lightman, Alan (April 3, 1989). "Vera Rubin". Interview transcript. Oral History. Niels Bohr Library and Archives: American Institute of Physics.
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