Film & Animation

The Harvard “Computers” and the Classification of Stars

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Over a century ago at the Harvard Observatory, a group of women were hired to make precise astronomy measurements on a collection of half a million glass plates. Their results form the backbone of our understanding of stars, and lead to important insights on such topics as the structure of the Milky Way and the nature and origin of the universe. The group became known as the Harvard Computers, and they helped shape our modern concept of the universe. However, unlike Hubble and Einstein, their names are largely lost to history. In this presentation, Dr. Bovill will help bring the work of Mina Fleming, Antonia Maury, Henrietta Leavitt, Annie Jump Cannon and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin out of the shadows.... Read More

Perspectives on Spiral Galaxies

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Spiral galaxies are pancake-shaped collections of billions of stars, along with vast clouds of gas and dust. This video illustrates how their observed shapes can differ greatly depending upon the angle at which they are observed. The spiral galaxies NGC 4302 (left) and NGC 4298 (right) are visualized in three dimensions and rotated to showcase how they might look if viewed from other perspectives. Each galaxy could be seen as a roughly circular face-on spiral, as a long, thin, edge-on spiral, or as any of the oblong shapes in between.... Read More