Thread by @Astropartigirl

Today is astronomer and trailblazer Vera Rubin's birthday. In 1965, she became the first woman to enter Palomar observatory, where she made the groundbreaking discovery of dark matter in Andromeda via its gravitational interactions with Kent Ford. #BirthdayVeraRubin (1/n)

Fritz Zwicky inferred its existence in 1930s in the Coma cluster using the virial theorem, but highly overestimated the dark matter content. Vera Rubin definitively proved dark matter exists; her calculations are still relevant today. Dark Matter Queen. #BirthdayVeraRubin (2/n)

In 2011, when physicists won the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering dark energy, stuff that's causing the Universe's expansion to accelerate w/ time, I was sure Vera Rubin was next! After all, we understand dark energy far less than we do dark matter. #BirthdayVeraRubin (3/n)

But I soon realized I was waiting for a sexist committee to admit they did not award her earlier because of her gender. And she passed on December 25, 2016. The Nobel Prize committee has a history of excluding women for reasons they did not exclude men. #BirthdayVeraRubin (4/n)

The fact that they waited till she died, and awarded a *very deserving* physicist, Jim Peebles, the Nobel Prize in Physics for contributions including dark matter in 2019, proved their omission of Vera Rubin was sexism. The Nobel means less to me now. #BirthdayVeraRubin (5/n)

Vera Rubin is the reason I study on dark matter. She's the reason it's a field. That she was not recognized by the Nobel Prize committee for her work, work that literally laid the foundation for the field of dark matter physics, is beyond me.
#BirthdayVeraRubin (6/n)

The value of the Nobel Prize has diminished for me because of Vera Rubin's work being overlooked time and time again. She discovered dark matter in the 1970s, and they waited nearly 50 years, FIFTY YEARS, till she died, only to award it to someone else. #BirthdayVeraRubin (7/n)

"Don't shoot for the stars, we already know what's there. Shoot for the space in between because that's where the real mystery lies."
I will, Vera Rubin. Thank you for making that possible, for me, and for many dark matter physicists. Happy birthday ❤
#BirthdayVeraRubin (8/8)

Okay enough with the whole Kent Ford thing. I wrote the thread on the fly, people, you know what I meant. And the point of my thread was way more important than this little thing. So give me a break on this, k? Thanks 🙄😑

https://twitter.com/Astropartigirl/status/1419130690717634563?s=19