Vera Cooper Rubin is a Astronome American born the July 23rd 1928 with Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, the United States). It is mainly known for its study on the number of revolutions of the star S in the spiral galaxies which highlighted the presence of black Matière around the Galaxie S.

Its studies

Vera Rubin tests a deep fascination for stars since the 12 years age. It enters in 1945 to the Vassar College and obtains a control in 1948, then between at the university of Cornell to follow her husband - Robert Rubin, a physicist - and to obtain a master in 1951. It presented its report during a meeting of the American company of astronomy, in which it suggests that in addition to moving away from/to each other because of the expansion of the Universe, the galaxies are in rotation around a still unknown point. Discussed an enough report which will cost him a bad reputation.

In 1954, it obtains a doctorate at the Georgetown university where her husband had found an employment, whereas it has two infants. Its thesis relates to the distribution of the galaxies in the Universe. She concludes that the galaxies were not distributed uniformly in the Universe; certain areas were richer in galaxies while others were it less. Its results were confirmed 15 years afterwards, but at the time of its publication, its thesis - which went against the homogeneous Universe proposed by the theory of the big bang of the time - hardly aroused interest on behalf of its fellow-members.

Its work

After its doctorate, she taught mathematics and physics during one year in Montgomery County Junior College. Of 1955 with 1965, it worked as enquiring at the Georgetown university then found off an employment with the Carnegie Institute' S Department Terrestrial Magnetism , where it works always since.

With Kent Ford, Rubin resumed its work on its subject of memory and drew some from new the same discussed enough conclusions as previously. The stormy debates which followed about this study, until the request of certain astronomers to stop this work made direct Rubin and Ford towards calmer fields of research.

In the Years 1970, Vera Rubin undertook to study the rotation of the spiral galaxies, starting from their spectrum. She realized by studying the case of the Galaxie of Andromède, that the stars with the periphery of the galaxy went too much quickly that did not envisage it the laws of Newton - problem similar to that raised by Fritz Zwicky in 1933. This study highlighted the presence of a halation of black Matter around the spiral galaxies whose mass would be 5 to 10 times more important than that of the galaxies. She also concludes that 90% of the matter of the Universe would be composed of this black matter, whose nature remains still unknown. The study which it undertook with its team on more than 200 other galaxies confirmed these results.

In the Years 1990, it observed that half of stars of the galaxy NGC 4550 turned in the direction of the needles of a watch, while other half turned in the opposite direction. This observation required of certain astronomers to re-examine the way in which they measured the number of revolutions.

In 1981, it is elected member of the National Academy off Sciences and off receives in 1993 the National Medal Science. It published a book, Bright Galaxies Dark Matters , in 1997.

Additional information

When George Gamow - her reader - invited to the Physics laboratory Applied, they had to speak each other in the entry about the laboratory because the women were not authorized to penetrate in the offices.

In 1965, it was the first woman authorized to work with the Observatoire of the Mount Palomar. The women were not authorized there for the only reason that there was only one bathroom.

Sandra Mr. Faber was one of its coeds.

His/her four children have a whole a doctorate in sciences; David (1950) and Allan (1960) in Geology, Judith (1952) in Astronomy and Karl (1956) in Mathematical.

Honorary distinctions

• 1993: National Medal off Science
• 1994: Senior lectureship Henry Norris Russell
• 1994: Dickson price in Sciences of the Carnegie-Melon university
• 1996: Gold medal of Royal Astronomical Society
• 2002: Price Peter Gruber of cosmology
• 2003: Medal Bruce
• 2004: Medal James Craig Watson

• the Asteroid (5726) Rubin
• Effect Rubin-Ford