Henrietta Swan Leavitt

Biography

Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovered the period-luminosity relationship of Cepheid variable stars — the brighter the star, the longer its pulsation period. This relationship became the first 'standard candle' for measuring cosmic distances, enabling Edwin Hubble to prove that the universe extends far beyond our galaxy. Hired as one of the 'Harvard Computers' — women who catalogued stars for minimal pay — her discovery fundamentally changed our understanding of the scale of the universe.

亨丽埃塔·勒维特发现了造父变星的周光关系——恒星越亮，其脉动周期越长。这一关系成为测量宇宙距离的第一个'标准烛光'，使哈勃得以证明宇宙远远超出我们的银河系。她被聘为'哈佛计算员'之一——为微薄报酬编目恒星的女性——她的发现从根本上改变了我们对宇宙尺度的理解。

Key Achievements

• Discovered the period-luminosity relationship of Cepheid stars

  发现造父变星的周光关系

• Enabled measurement of cosmic distances

  使宇宙距离的测量成为可能

• Made possible the discovery of the expanding universe

  使发现宇宙膨胀成为可能

References & Citations

1. Wikipedia: Henrietta Swan Leavitt — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Swan_Leavitt
2. Johnson, George. Miss Leavitt's Stars. W.W. Norton, 2005.