Biography · Noble People · 95 / 100

Vera Rubin

1928–2016 · Astronomer

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Portrait of Vera Rubin — Photograph by Mark Godfrey, courtesy of AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Gift of Vera Rubin · Wikimedia Commons, Attribution

Bio

American astronomer whose measurements of the rotation of spiral galaxies, carried out with Kent Ford in the 1970s, showed that stars at the outer edges move faster than visible mass predicts. The finding provided strong observational evidence for dark matter and reframed cosmology. She also advocated persistently for the inclusion of women in professional astronomy.