Maria Mitchell's curiosity about the night sky led her to spend hours
studying the stars. She discovered a comet as a young woman, winning an
award from the King of Denmark for being the first person to discover a
new comet using a telescope.
Now famous as "the lady astronomer," Maria went on to become a
professional astronomer, an unheard of achievement for a woman in the
19th century. She was the first woman to get any kind of government job
when she was hired by the United States Naval Observatory. Then as the
first woman astronomy professor in the world, Maria used her position at
Vassar College to teach young women to set their sights on the sky,
training new generations of female astronomers. Her story inspires all
of us to reach for the stars.