Jacqueline Mitton (née Pardoe, born 1948) is a British

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 ...

, writer, and media consultant who lives and works in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, UK. She studied at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...

and

Murray Edwards College, Cambridge Murray Edwards College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1954 as New Hall and renamed in 2008. The name honours a gift of £30 million by alumna Ros Edwards and her husband Steve, and the firs ...

. She has served as Public Relations Officer for the

Royal Astronomical Society The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charitable organisation, charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, planetary science, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its ...

. From 1987 to 1993, she was the editor of the ''

Journal of the British Astronomical Association The ''Journal of the British Astronomical Association'' is a peer review, peer-reviewed scientific journal of astronomy published by the British Astronomical Association since October 1890. It is currently Editor-in-chief, edited by Philip Jennings ...

''. She has authored, co-authored, or contributed to many books. Mitton's career has focused on bringing astronomy to the public - both adults and children - as a writer. She received a Bachelor of Arts at Oxford University in 1969 and a PhD at Cambridge University in 1975. Her 1998 picture book ''Zoo in the Sky'' introduces children to astronomy through an explanation of the stars and animal constellations. Her 2003 book ''Once Upon a Starry Night'' introduces children to myths and facts about the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

. She was a

county councillor A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Australia In the Australian state of New South Wales, county councils are special purpose ...

for Cambridgeshire from 1989 to 1993.

Asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

4027 Mitton is named after her and her husband

Simon Mitton Simon Mitton (born 18 December 1946) is a British astronomer and writer. He is based at St Edmund's College, Cambridge. He has written numerous astronomical works. The most well known of these is his biography of fellow Cambridge astronomer Fred ...

Books

(not a complete list) * ''Astronomy: an introduction'' (1978) * ''Key definitions in astronomy'' (1980) * ''Discovering Astronomy'' (1983), with

* ''A Visitor's Introduction to the Antarctic and its Environment'' (1984), with

Nigel Bonner William Nigel Bonner (15 February 1928 – 27 August 1994) was a British zoologist, Antarctic marine mammal specialist, author and ecologist. The topics of his books and scientific publications included marine animals, reindeer and the ecology of ...

* ''Invitation to Astronomy'' (1986), with Simon Mitton * ''Gems of Hubble'' (1996), with Stephen P. Maran * ''Discovering the Planets'' (1991) * ''The Young Oxford book of Astronomy'' (1994), with Simon Mitton * ''The Great Comet Crash: The Collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Jupiter'' (1995), co-edited with John Spencer * ''Galileo: scientist and star gazer'' (1997) * ''Aliens'' (1998) * ''The Marshall children's guide to astronomy'' (1998), with Simon Mitton * ''Zoo in the Sky: a book of animal constellations'' (1998) * ''Kingdom of the sun: a book of the planets'' (2001) * "Working with the media: the Royal Astronomical Society experience", in ''Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy II'' (2001), ed. André Heck * ''Stars and planets'' (2002) * ''Once Upon a Starry Night: Heroes and Gods of the Constellations'' (2003), republished as ''The Planet Gods'' * ''Oxford Astronomy'' (2003), with Simon Mitton * ''Zodiac: celestial circle of the sun'' (2004) * ''Cambridge illustrated dictionary of astronomy'' (2007) * ''Moon'' (2009) * ''I see the moon'' (2010) * ''Titan Unveiled: Saturn's Mysterious Moon Unveiled'' (2010), with Ralph Lorenz * ''Space'' (2016) * ''From dust to life : the origin and evolution of our solar system'' (2017), with John Chambers * ''The Penguin Dictionary of Astronomy'' (various editions)

References

External links

''New Scientist'' review of Titan Unveiled

''New Scientist'' review of Invitation to Astronomy

Autobiographical piece
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitton, Jacqueline 20th-century British astronomers Living people British women scientists British women astronomers Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Alumni of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge 20th-century British non-fiction writers 20th-century British women writers 21st-century British non-fiction writers 21st-century British women writers British science writers British women science writers 21st-century British astronomers 1948 births