21-25 Astronomy Facts
21. NASA has an observatory onboard a Boeing 747 named SOFIA i.e. Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. – Source
22. Anyone can help sort and measure our galaxy because of a public astronomy project called The Milky Way Project. – Source
23. Princeton did not allow women into the graduate astronomy program until 1975. – Source
24. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was the first person to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy from Radcliffe College (Harvard) and discovered what the Universe is made of. – Source
25. NASA has been publishing an Astronomy Photograph of the Day since mid-1995 – Source
26-30 Astronomy Facts
26. In 2012, the National Reconnaissance Office gave NASA two leftover space telescopes of greater quality than the Hubble space telescope at no cost. Those telescopes were designed as spy telescopes but could be useful for astronomy if NASA ever launches them. – Source
27. The moon appears to wiggle and shifts if observed throughout a whole lunar cycle. That is why an observer on Earth sees more than 50% of the moon’s surface. In astronomy, this is called Libration. – Source
28. Edgar Allen Poe provided an answer to a great paradox in astronomy before scientists could. – Source
29. After introducing gypsy moths to North America, E.L. Trouvelot lost interest in entomology. Instead, he focused on astronomy, he ended up making about 7000 astronomical illustrations and has craters named after him on the Moon and Mars. – Source
30. Before 1925, in the field of astronomy, a date officially began at Noon instead of Midnight. – Source
31-33 Astronomy Facts
31. Clyde Tombaugh enrolled in university two years after his discovery of Pluto. He wanted to take an introductory course in astronomy but the professor wouldn’t let him as he thought it would create awkward academic implications for a discoverer of a planet to be taking beginning astronomy. – Source
32. Astronomy Fact: After a few million years our local group will contract to form a new Spiral galaxy and eventually we would not be able to observe radiation from other local groups. – Source
33. Astronomer Nancy Roman could not gain tenure after completing her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1949 because she was female. So she went on to become the first Chief of Astronomy at NASA and the “mother of Hubble” instead. – Source
