Women in Astronomy: A History

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planetarium itself, which projects the magnificent images of celestial bodies in their courses onto the domed ceiling.

Stargazing is ancient and romantic: all you need is a pair of eyes. Astronomy, however, is the scientific study of matter in outer space. You need smarts for it — physics, math, and general science smarts. Historically astronomy has been a male-dominated field (and even today the gender ratio is 4:1), so some of the extraordinary women featured in the planetarium's new production needed both a scholarly advantage and the ability to endure discrimination. Oh, and angry mobs.

The story starts around 450 A.D. with Hypatia, a noted astronomer in Alexandria, then the Greco-Roman world's center of knowledge. She was an astronomer, a Platonic philosopher, and the first woman to make a substantial contribution to the development of mathematics. Masses of people traveled far to hear her public lectures. According to one fifth-century historian, "she not infrequently appeared in public in the presence of the magistrates. Neither did she feel abashed in going to an assembly of men, for all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more."

Well, all except a group of fanatical Christian monks who became enraged by her prominence. They formed a mob and dragged her to a church, where they stripped her, murdered her, tore her body into pieces, and took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron, where they burned them.