Who made the fírst discovery of a comet not visible to the naked eye?
American astronomer Maria Mitchell (1818-1889) was a teacher, astronomer, and advocate of women's rights. She was the first female member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Women. In an age when women were expected to stay at home, Mitchell made advances in the field of astronomy and encouraged a generation of young women to pursue careers in mathematics and the sciences. She worked first as a teacher at her own school, then as a librarian. On October 1,1847, she made the first discovery of a comet not visible to the naked eye. For this achievement she received a gold medal from the King of Denmark. Mitchell's election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1848 brought her a great deal of notoriety. The next year Mitchell was hired by the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac to assist with the United States Coast survey. The survey was charged with establishing more accurate measures of time, latitude, and longitude. Mitchell joined the faculty of the newly founded Vassar College for women in 1865. Serving as an astronomy professor and director of the observatory, Mitchell remained at Vassar for twenty-three years. Throughout her life Mitchell made extensive observations of the Sun, stars, and planets, and developed a number of theories based on what she saw. For instance, she correctly identified Jupiter's cloud layers as being part of the planet itself, and not just hovering in the atmosphere, as clouds on Earth do. She was also right in speculating that Saturn's rings were of a different composition than the body of the planet.
