Huesca sundial honours women who have contributed for the development of astronomy

Its unveiling marked the International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Today, 11 February, is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science and the Spanish city of Huesca found a creative way to bring attention to the pioneering contributions of women in the field of Astronomy.

Earlier today, city officials unveiled the ‘Hypatia of Alexandria’ Sundial at the entrance esplanade of the Planetarium of Aragon. It is named after the Egyptian polymath scientist and inventor of the hydrometer, who lived in the 5^th century.

The other women scientists to receive symbolic recognition

The sundial is a simple monument yet a powerful reminder and reference about the historical contribution of female scientists to the development of astronomy. Each of its plaques has been marked by one name.

• Sophia Brahe (16^th-17^th centuries, Denmark): She worked on the calculation of orbits and orbital periods of different celestial bodies, drawing up a catalogue of planetary movements and positions;
• Asunción Catalán Poch (20^th-21^st centuries, Spain): Professor at the University of Barcelona, s​​he has worked on researching the Solar system and different orbital calculations. She is considered the first female Spanish professional astronomer;
• Katherine Coleman G. Johnson, (20^th-21^st centuries, United States): An African-American mathematician, she calculated the trajectory and splashdown window for astronaut Alan Shepard's first suborbital flight and validated the equations that would control the trajectory of John Glenn's orbital flight;
• Caroline Lucrecia Herschel, (18^th-19^th centuries, Germany): She worked as an "assistant" and opened new lines of research that led her to discover three new nebulae. Her scientific publication is recognized as the first one bearing a female signature. She listed up to 560 new stars in her time and is the first astronomer credited with discovering a comet, C/1786 P1 -Herschel-;
• Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming, (19^th-20^th centuries, Scotland and the United States): She catalogued 10,000 stars and glimpsed another 300 as well as novae, nebulae, white dwarfs and other types of celestial bodies. In her cataloguing work, she encouraged different students to continue this task:
• En'heduana, (23^rd century BC, Babylon (modern Iraq)): She is considered the first female astronomer. As a high priestess of the Moon God, she was the only one who could set laws. She directed several temples that served as astronomical observatories and created the first religious calendars, some of which are still in force;
• Marie Korsaga, (20^th-21st centuries, Burkina Faso): Doctor in astrophysics for her thesis “The distribution of dark and visible matter in spiral and irregular galaxies”. She works at the Institute of Astrophysics of Marseille and for the Office of Astronomy for Development. She has founded FeB-STIM (Burkinabe Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). She has several scientific outreach projects for different parts of her country and other Africans.
• Fátima of Madrid, (10^th century, Al-Andalus (current Spain)): Although there is no other news about her existence than the work "Fátima’s Corrections", or the "Treatise on the astrolabe" referenced to her as an author, it is believed that she could have been the daughter of Maslama al-Majriti, a famous Andalusian astronomer;
• Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin, (19^th-20^th centuries, England/United States): She was the first female professor of Astronomy at the University of Harvard. She also became the director of the department. She demonstrated that the Sun is mainly composed of hydrogen and helium gases, a finding ahead of its time and the claims of other scientists;
• Paris Pishmish, (20th century, Turkey/Mexico): She was the first professional woman astronomer in Mexico. She compiled the "Pismis" catalogue of 22 open star clusters and two globular clusters in the Southern Hemisphere. She worked at the Tacubaya National Astronomical Observatory and left more than 100 disciples, who continue her work;
• Henrietta Swan Leavitt, (19^th-20^th centuries, United States/England): While at the Harvard College Observatory, studying the photographic plates on the Cepheids (variable luminosity stars), She discovered a pattern: the Cepheids pulsated in a variable way, with greater luminosity the greater the rate of pulsation. This facilitated from then on the measurement of distances in the Universe;
• Valentina Tereshkova (20^th-21^st centuries, USSR/Russia): In 1963, she became the first woman to travel to outer space, logging in 70 hours of flight and 48 trips around the Earth's orbit. The program that took Yuri Gagarin into space had started only two years earlier. She launched solo on the Vostok 6 flight and had to vary the ship's trajectory from within, due to ground control miscalculations, in order to return safely and land.