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A STELLAR CAREER by Benjamin Skuse the Astronomer Who Taught Us We Are All Made of Stardust Will Celebrate Her 100Th Birthday On

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A STELLAR CAREER by Benjamin Skuse the Astronomer Who Taught Us We Are All Made of Stardust Will Celebrate Her 100Th Birthday On A STELLAR CAREER by Benjamin Skuse Happy Birthday, The astronomer who taught us we are all made Margaret of stardust will celebrate her 100th birthday on Burbidge August 12, 2019. ARCHIVE S&T CYGNUS LOOP: ESA / DIGITIZED SKY SURVEY / CALTECH; BURBIDGE: 60 JULY 2019 • SKY & TELESCOPE ©2019 Sky & Telescope. All rights reserved. LADY STARDUST Margaret Burbidge, who celebrates her 100th birthday in August, had a long and stellar career in multiple fields of astrophysics. One of her most significant achievements was formulating our understand- ing of nucleosynthesis in stars. Among positions she held in her lifetime were director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and president of the American Astronomical Society, both the first time that a woman filled the post. The photograph shows Burbidge in Dallas, Texas, in February 1964. ©2019 Sky & Telescope. All rights reserved. skyandtelescope.com • JULY 2019 61 A Stellar Career ou can’t give telescope time for this junk science! Who and for the first time the stars were clearly visible to her, “ does she think she is?” blustered a young upstart upon and she was smitten.” Yhearing that an elderly astronomer wanted half a night This fascination, combined with a talent for mathemat- with one of the brand-new Keck telescopes to observe objects ics, developed to the point where she was reading the books that might disprove the Big Bang theory. of astronomer and mathematician Sir James Jeans, a distant Observatory Director Joe Miller was quick to put the relative on her mother’s side, by the age of 12. She went on youngster in his place: “You just look up Margaret Burbidge, to study astronomy at University College London, graduat- the Margaret Burbidge, and you’ll know who she is,” he said. ing in the summer of 1939 with little ceremony due to the “If Margaret Burbidge wants half a night to draw up pic- looming cloud of war. tures of Mars, I’ll give it to her — whether we think it’s crazy Over the next few years, the fresh graduate split her time or not, we’re going to show respect to one of the greatest between maintaining the University of London Observatory at astronomers of the 20th century.” Mill Hill in the absence of the many scientists and technicians Though the night turned out to be cloudy and she wouldn’t have found evidence to support an alternative to the Big Bang anyway, this mid-1990s episode — when Burbidge u THE QUARTET Margaret was already in her 70s — is but one of many in a career span- and Geoff teamed up with Wil- ning more than 60 years that highlight a determination to ly Fowler (third from left) and Fred Hoyle (at right) to write push the frontiers of human knowledge. one of the seminal papers in Born Eleanor Margaret Peachey in Davenport, UK, to all of astrophysics. They not chemist parents, Burbidge caught the astronomy bug early. only worked together, they “She became interested in the stars when she was three or also played together — here four years old,” explains her daughter, Sarah Burbidge. “Her they’re celebrating Fowler’s 60th birthday in July 1971, ad- family took a night ferry crossing to France for a holiday, miring his model train engine. Triumph Over Obstacles In her largely quiet and undemonstrative way, Burbidge’s handling of the many moments of discrimination she encountered during her career inspired other female astronomers to pursue and achieve their own ambitions. 1945 was accepted. The couple Payne-Gaposchkin and Helen 1972 With World War II ending, stayed in a separate summer Sawyer Hogg, so it wasn’t at Just a year later, Burbidge Burbidge saw an opportu- cottage on the mountain away all surprising when the AAS became the first female nity to gain “access to larger from the exclusively male wanted to award Burbidge astronomer to become a telescopes, better instruments dormitory, and Margaret was with the accolade. What was member of the National Acad- and clearer skies” in the U.S. officially only there as Geoff’s surprising, instead, was the emy of Sciences, and the first through an advertisement assistant. In reality, Geoff rejection letter Burbidge wrote female director of the Royal for a Carnegie Fellowship at conducted the dark room in response. In it, she said “it Greenwich Observatory — but - Mount Wilson Observatory. work and smoked cigars, is high time that discrimina- wasn’t elected Astronomer VOL. However, her hopes were while Margaret finally got to tion in favor of, as well as Royal, the first and only time immediately dashed when observe the heavens from against, women in profes- in the organization’s history her application was denied Mount Wilson. sional life be removed, and a this occurred. Instead, Martin — simply on account of her prize restricted to women is Ryle was given the position. gender. “A guiding operational 1971 in this category.” Her refusal Whether this was pure gender principle in my life was acti- The Annie Jump Cannon led to the creation of the first discrimination or a symptom vated,” she said in her 1994 Award was the American working group on the sta- of political shenanigans in the PHYSICS REVIEWS MODERN OF memoir. “If frustrated in one’s Astronomical Society’s (AAS) tus of women in astronomy, British astronomical com- endeavors by a stone wall . oldest prize and the only and increased awareness of munity remains unclear. What one must find a way around.” one exclusively for women. discrimination against women was clear was that Burbidge Ten years later, Geoff submit- It had been awarded to and other minority groups in didn’t want to be involved in 29, NO. 4, P. 547 (1957) / AMERICAN (1957) 547 29, NO. PHYSICAL P. 4, SOCIETY ted another application, which luminaries such as Cecilia astronomy. the turmoil within British as- QUARTET: MASTER AND FELLOWS OF ST JOHN’S COLLEGE / TEXTURE: WRIT STARDUST CLAYTON; DONALD / CAMBRIDGE ERFANTAST / ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS E. M. BURBIDGE ET AL. / 62 JULY 2019 • SKY & TELESCOPE ©2019 Sky & Telescope. All rights reserved. sucked into the war effort, fabricating optical instruments for wife always used to say ‘If Queen Elizabeth ever needed a the armed forces, and graduate studies. stand-in, Margaret could do it’.” For her PhD thesis, she analyzed spectra of the variable But appearances can be deceiving. Though Geoff had star Gamma Cassiopeiae. She observed in the harshest of strong scientific views and a penchant for a heated argu- conditions, often alone at night in a cramped space under a cold open dome, sometimes with the fear-inducing sounds of flying bombs going off around her. Yet she never complained, offering the first hint of the steely determination and thirst for knowledge that would later define her: “Those nights, standing or sitting on a ladder in the dome of the Wilson reflector . fulfilled my early dreams,” Burbidge later recalled in a 1994 memoir. The years immediately following World War II would turn out to be career-defining for the young astronomer. Along- side giving classes on practical astronomy on the observatory roof — to students that included an enthusiastic undergradu- ate named Arthur C. Clarke — she also attended graduate lectures in physics. There, she immediately hit it off with “an interesting person” called Geoffrey (Geoff) Burbidge who she would go on to marry just six months later. From the outside, the pair made an unlikely couple. Geoff was a large man with a truculent, impatient character, while Margaret was so demure and quiet that Miller claims, “My tronomy at the time, and she 1983 tendered her resignation just a B2FH was a transformative year and a half later. paper deserving of the highest accolades. And in 1983 this 1976 was recognized when Fowler Despite, or perhaps because was awarded the Nobel Prize of, the Annie Jump Can- in Physics. Yet even Fowler non Award rejection, Bur- was shocked by the omission bidge was elected the first of his colleagues. Hoyle could woman president of the AAS. have been left out for various At the time, the U.S. Equal reasons: his stance on the Big Rights Amendment — guar- Bang theory, the various out- - anteeing the same rights for landish ideas he put forward in VOL. all American citizens regard- later life, or for heavy criticism less of gender — had been of the committee in 1974 for ratified by all but three states. awarding Antony Hewish and Burbidge put forward to failing to recognize Jocelyn the membership the idea of Bell Burnell’s contributions in banning annual AAS meet- discovering the first pulsar. Vari- ings from being held in the ous commentators have since REVIEWS OF MODERN PHYSICS REVIEWS MODERN OF three dissenting states. She posited that Bell Burnell’s and received highly polarized Burbidge’s Nobel omissions p THE B2FH PAPER This seminal paper on stellar nucleosynthesis, responses, but it narrowly were but two of many examples headed by Margaret Burbidge, was cited so often that the authors were passed, offering a signal of of sexism in astronomy. Bur- referred to as “B2FH.” Above is a schematic diagram of the nuclear support from the AAS for bidge remains characteristically processes by which the synthesis of elements in stars takes place. This 29, NO. 4, P. 547 (1957) / AMERICAN (1957) 547 29, NO. PHYSICAL P. 4, SOCIETY QUARTET: MASTER AND FELLOWS OF ST JOHN’S COLLEGE / TEXTURE: WRIT STARDUST CLAYTON; DONALD / CAMBRIDGE ERFANTAST / ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS E. M. BURBIDGE ET AL. / women in science. reserved on the subject. tour de force is 108 pages long. ©2019 Sky & Telescope. All rights reserved. skyandtelescope.com • JULY 2019 63 A Stellar Career u PAGE FROM AN OBSERVING LOGBOOK – AUGUST 3, 1944 Burbidge conducted her PhD research during the World War II years.
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