Adelaide Ames (June 3, 1900 – June 26, 1932) was an American

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

and research assistant at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. She was best known for her work on detailed surveys of the brightest extra-galactic

spiral nebulae Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''

. She contributed to the study of

galaxies A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar Sys ...

with her co-authorship of ''A Survey of the External Galaxies Brighter Than the Thirteenth Magnitude'', which was later known as the Shapley-Ames catalog.''Research Astronomer Lost by Drowning.'' In: ''Popular astronomy'', Vol. 40, August/September 1932, S. 448–449.
online
Ames was a member of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

. She was a contemporary of

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (born Cecilia Helena Payne; – ) was a British-born American astronomer and astrophysicist. Her work on the cosmic makeup of the universe and the nature of variable stars was foundational to modern astrophysics. She ...

and her closest friend at the observatory.Barbara L. Welther: ''Adelaide Ames and the Shapley-Ames Catalogue''. (Abstract) In: Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. Vol. 22, 1990, S. 841.
online
Ames died in a boating accident in 1932, the same year the ''Shapley-Ames'' catalog was published.

Biography

Ames attended

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

from 1918 to1922, then studied at

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...

, where there was a recently created graduate program in astronomy. While in college, she aspired to become a journalist and reported for the Vassar Miscellany News, in addition to taking astronomy classes. Ames became the Harvard College Observatory’s first graduate student in astronomy in January 1923. Ames graduated in 1924 as the first woman with an

M.A Ma, MA, or mA may refer to: Academia * Master of Arts, a degree award * Marin Academy, a high school in San Rafael, California * Menlo-Atherton High School, a public high school in Atherton, California * Minnehaha Academy, a private high schoo ...

in astronomy at Radcliffe. Ames was a member of the American Astronomical Society and was elected to the International Committee on Nebulae and Clusters in 1928. She was a delegate to the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

(IAU) congress in Leiden, the Netherlands in 1928, and she was the secretary of the organizing committee for the subsequent congress of the IAU, which was held at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

in 1932. Originally she had planned to become a journalist, but she found no work in the area and instead accepted a job as a research assistant at the

Harvard College Observatory The Harvard College Observatory (HCO) is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United St ...

(HCO), a position she held until her death. The focus of her work was the cataloging of galaxies in the constellations

Coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to Nociception, respond normally to Pain, painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate ...

and Virgo. In 1931, the finished catalog included nearly 2800 objects. This work earned her membership in the IAU Commission 28 on Nebulae and Star Clusters. On June 26, 1932, while vacationing on

Squam Lake Squam Lake is a lake located in the Lakes Region (New Hampshire), Lakes Region of central New Hampshire, United States, south of the White Mountains (New Hampshire), White Mountains, straddling the borders of Grafton County, New Hampshire, Grafton ...

, Ames was taking a canoe tour with a friend on the lake when the boat capsized. She was presumed to have drowned and her body was found after a ten-day search on July 5, 1932. She died at the age of 32, and would later be interred at the

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the United States National Cemetery System, one of two maintained by the United States Army. More than 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington County, Virginia. ...

Research at Harvard

In 1921,

Harlow Shapley Harlow Shapley (November 2, 1885 – October 20, 1972) was an American astronomer, who served as head of the Harvard College Observatory from 1921–1952, and political activist during the latter New Deal and Fair Deal. Shapley used Cepheid var ...

became director of HCO, and soon afterward hired Ames as an assistant. Ames was Shapley's first graduate student and Ames went on to supervise her own graduate students. Her early work at Harvard focused on the identification of NGC/IC objects. In 1926, she and Shapley published several articles on the shapes, colors, and diameters of 103 NGC galaxies. In 1930, she published ''A catalog of 2778 nebulae including the Coma-Virgo group'', which identified 214 NGC and 342 IC objects in the area of the

Virgo cluster The Virgo Cluster is a cluster of galaxies whose center is 53.8 ± 0.3 Mly (16.5 ± 0.1 Mpc) away in the Virgo constellation. Comprising approximately 1,300 (and possibly up to 2,000) member galaxies, the cluster forms the heart of the larger ...

Shapley-Ames Catalog

During her tenure at the Harvard College Observatory, she worked together with Harlow Shapley on the ''Shapley-Ames'' catalog, which lists galaxies beyond the 13th magnitude. From their observations of approximately 1250 galaxies, they found evidence of clustering near the north pole of the Milky Way that differs from the south pole. These results were significant as their finding of "general unevenness in distribution" of galaxies deviated from the assumption of

isotropy In physics and geometry, isotropy () is uniformity in all orientations. Precise definitions depend on the subject area. Exceptions, or inequalities, are frequently indicated by the prefix ' or ', hence ''anisotropy''. ''Anisotropy'' is also u ...

Family

Adelaide Ames's father was ''T.L. Ames'', who served as a colonel in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

. Her mother was ''Margetta Nataline Kelton Ames''. They were described by their friends as devoted and adoring parents, as Ames had no siblings. Ames often traveled to army based throughout the world with her parents, spending periods of time living in the Philippines and Washington D.C..

References

External links

Adelaide Ames Publications
in

Astrophysics Data System The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is a digital library portal for researchers on astronomy and physics, operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. ADS maintains three bibliographic collections containing over 15 ...