BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Born between Halloween and the Solstice - Quiz

Here are 30 people who made contributions to astronomy and space. Ten of them were also born between Halloween and the Winter Solstice. Can you match them to their birthdays?

Born between Halloween and the Solstice - Quiz

Edmond Halley was born on November 8, 1656 in Haggerston, now part of London.

Halley didn't discover a comet, but he did research and published papers in astronomy and many other fields. Russian royalty, who would become Czar Peter the Great, liked him as a dining and drinking companion and King William III put this civilian in charge of a Royal Navy ship. But how did he get a comet named for him?

Edmond Halley

In the 17th century Robert Hooke produced a revolutionary bestseller, helped rebuild London after the Great Fire, and was a renowned experimenter, inventor, musician and artist. Hooke contributed to astronomy, geology, structural engineering and chemistry. He was 'England's Leonardo'.

Robert Hooke - England's Leonardo

Uranus and Neptune are ice giants and twin planets. They are very similar in many ways, but they aren't identical twins. For example, Uranus orbits lying down and Neptune is much warmer than it should be.

Uranus and Neptune - Twin Planets

Johannes Kepler gave the first accurate description of the Solar System. As he did his work, he struggled with poverty, insecurity and bereavement in troubled times. Religion and warfare were tearing Europe apart, but Kepler never gave up his quest to understand the cosmos.

Johannes Kepler - His Life

Pluto was once the last outpost of the Solar System. Now we realize that it's the gateway to the Kuiper Belt, a disk made up of rubble left over from the formation of the Solar System. The Kuiper Belt is big and cold and the Sun would just look like a bright star from there.

Kuiper Belt

Through the vision and dedication of Edward Pickering, Harvard College had one of the world's top observatories. Pickering had a secret weapon: a team of women computers. One of them was Mina Fleming who began her employment as a housekeeper and ended it as an astronomer of international repute.

Williamina Fleming

Oh! Be a fine girl (guy)--kiss me! This is the traditional mnemonic for the way stars are classified: OBAFGKM. Find out about the astronomer and suffragette who devised the system and who said that astronomical spectroscopy made it "almost as if the distant stars had acquired speech."

Annie Jump Cannon

Maria Mitchell was a true pioneer woman. She didn't brave a physical wilderness. Hers was the harder job of pioneering higher education for women. She was the first American woman to discover a comet, the first to be elected to scientific societies and the first woman professor of astronomy.

Maria Mitchell