Nancy Grace Roman facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Nancy Grace Roman
Nancy Grace Roman in 1969
Born	(1925-05-16)May 16, 1925 Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Died	December 25, 2018(2018-12-25) (aged 93) Germantown, Maryland, U.S.
Education	Swarthmore College University of Chicago
Known for	Planning of the Hubble Space Telescope, First Chief of Astronomy at NASA
Awards	See list Federal Woman's Award Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, NASA NASA Outstanding Scientific Leadership Award Fellow, American Astronautical Society William Randolph Lovelace II Award, American Astronautical Association Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Lifetime Achievement Award – Women in Aerospace
Scientific career
Fields	Astronomy, Astrophysics
Institutions	Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago, NASA, Naval Research Laboratory
Thesis	Ursa Major Moving Group (1949)
Doctoral advisor	William Wilson Morgan
Other academic advisors	W.W. Morgan, Peter van de Kamp

Nancy Grace Roman (May 16, 1925 – December 25, 2018) was a famous American astronomer. She made big discoveries about how stars move and what they are made of. She was the very first woman to hold an executive leadership role at NASA.

Roman served as NASA's first Chief of Astronomy throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Because she played such a major role in creating and planning giant space observatories, she is widely celebrated as the "Mother of Hubble" in honor of the Hubble Space Telescope. In 2020, NASA officially named the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope after her to honor her amazing work.

Who Was Nancy Grace Roman?

Nancy Grace Roman was a scientist who helped humans see deeper into the universe than ever before. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Throughout her long career, she proved that giant telescopes placed high in space above Earth's atmosphere could see clearer pictures of distant galaxies than telescopes on the ground.

She was also a great role model for young scientists. During a time when few women were allowed in space research, Roman broke barriers and encouraged many others to follow their dreams in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Early Childhood and Stargazing Curiosity

Roman was born on May 16, 1925. Her mother, Georgia Frances Smith Roman, was a music teacher. Her father, Irwin Roman, was a talented mathematician and geophysicist (a scientist who studies the physics of the Earth).

Because her father worked for energy companies and the government, the family moved many times. When Roman was just three months old, they moved to Oklahoma. Over the next several years, the family lived in Texas, New Jersey, Michigan, and Nevada.

Roman always credited her parents with sparking her curiosity about nature. Her mother took her on night walks to look at birds and identify constellations in the sky. Her father answered her endless questions about math, rocks, and physical science.

Starting Her Own Astronomy Club

When Roman was around 11 years old, her family lived in Nevada. She fell completely in love with the night sky. She gathered her neighborhood friends and started an astronomy club.

The club met once a week. They read library books, studied star maps, and looked at constellations. By the time she reached seventh grade, Roman knew with total certainty that she wanted to spend her life studying stars.

When she was 12, her family settled in Baltimore, Maryland. Roman attended Western High School, an all-girls school with challenging classes. She worked hard, took extra courses, and graduated in just three years.

Education and Overcoming Early Challenges

During the 1930s and 1940s, many people believed that women should not become scientists. Roman often faced teachers and counselors who tried to discourage her from studying advanced math and physics.

When Roman asked her high school guidance counselor if she could take advanced algebra instead of Latin, the counselor asked why a young woman would ever want to study mathematics. Roman ignored the criticism and took the math classes anyway.

College Years at Swarthmore College

Roman entered Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania in 1942 to study astronomy. The college leaders were initially hesitant to support a woman in science. However, Roman proved her skill immediately.

She began working with Professor Peter van de Kamp, who ran the Sproul Observatory. She repaired two small student telescopes that had been broken for years. Working with these tools gave her a strong understanding of how astronomical instruments operate.

Roman spent hours measuring glass photographic plates that captured images of stars. Her professor taught her about astrometry, which is the precise measurement of the positions and movements of stars. Roman graduated from Swarthmore with high honors in February 1946.

Earning a Doctorate at the University of Chicago

After Swarthmore, Roman went to graduate school at the University of Chicago. Her classes were held at the famous Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin.

She asked top astronomers for research projects. Professor William Wilson Morgan gave her an observational project using a 12-inch telescope. Roman worked tirelessly, analyzing the brightness and spectra (light patterns) of stars.

In 1949, she earned her Ph.D. in astronomy. Her research focused on the Ursa Major Moving Group, a cluster of stars that includes most of the Big Dipper moving together through space.

Major Scientific Discoveries

After finishing her degree, Roman stayed at Yerkes Observatory as a researcher and assistant professor. She traveled frequently to the McDonald Observatory in Texas to observe the sky with large telescopes.

How Star Chemistry Explains Galactic History

Roman made a groundbreaking discovery about stars that are similar in size to our Sun. She analyzed the light coming from these stars using spectroscopy (the study of light broken into its rainbow colors).

She discovered that stars can be divided into distinct groups based on their chemical elements and how fast they move:

• Stars with fewer heavy elements (elements heavier than hydrogen and helium) moved much faster and in wilder orbits.
• Stars with more heavy elements moved in calmer, flatter circles near the center of the Milky Way.

This discovery proved that not all stars in our galaxy are the same age. Fast-moving stars with fewer heavy elements were born when the universe was very young, before heavier elements existed in large amounts. This provided scientists with vital clues about how the Milky Way galaxy formed over billions of years.

The Mystery of the Changing Star AG Draconis

While observing the sky, Roman noticed something strange about a star named AG Draconis. When she looked at its light pattern, it looked completely different from earlier records.

She had caught the star during a rare, active flare-up stage. Stars like AG Draconis stay in this unusual state only 2 to 3 percent of the time. Her report made her well known among professional astronomers worldwide.

The High-Velocity Star Catalog

In 1955, Roman published a major catalog listing 600 high-velocity stars (stars traveling at unusually high speeds). She developed a method called the "ultraviolet excess" method.

This technique allowed astronomers to figure out the chemical makeup of a star simply by checking its colors with filters, saving hundreds of hours of telescope time.

Working at the Naval Research Laboratory

In 1954, Roman left the university to join the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C. At that time, universities rarely gave permanent professorships to female scientists.

Exploring the New World of Radio Astronomy

At the NRL, Roman entered the brand-new field of radio astronomy. Instead of looking at visible light through glass lenses, radio astronomers use giant metal dishes to listen to radio waves emitted by cosmic objects.

The NRL had built a 50-foot radio dish on top of a building, which was the most accurate radio antenna of its era. Roman became the head of the microwave spectroscopy section.

Her important NRL projects included:

• Mapping large sections of the Milky Way using radio frequencies at 440 megahertz.
• Using radar waves bouncing off the Moon to calculate the exact distance between Earth and the Moon.
• Helping scientists calculate the precise mass of Earth using lunar radar data.

Early Rocket Consultations and International Trips

While working at the NRL, Roman advised engineers working on Project Vanguard, one of America's first satellite programs. This work sparked her interest in placing scientific instruments above Earth's atmosphere.

In 1956, she was invited to speak at the opening of the Byurakan Observatory in Armenia. She was the very first American civilian scientist allowed to visit Armenia after the start of the Cold War. Her speech earned her international praise.

Becoming NASA's First Chief of Astronomy

In 1958, the United States created NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). In early 1959, Roman attended a scientific lecture where a NASA official asked if she knew anyone who wanted to set up a brand-new space astronomy program.

Roman recognized this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She applied for the job and was hired immediately.

Setting Up the World's First Space Science Program

Roman became NASA's Head of Observational Astronomy in 1959, and in 1960, she became the first Chief of Astronomy in NASA's Office of Space Science. She was the first woman ever to hold an executive leadership position at NASA.

When she arrived, space science was completely new. Most traditional astronomers used ground telescopes and doubted that expensive satellites were worth the effort.

Roman traveled to universities across the United States. She gave lectures, met with skeptical astronomers, and listened to their ideas. She convinced them that putting telescopes in space would revolutionize their understanding of the universe.

Why Put Telescopes in Space?

Roman taught scientists and lawmakers about the big problems caused by Earth's atmosphere:

• Light Distortion: Air currents in the atmosphere bend and blur starlight, which makes stars appear to twinkle.
• Light Pollution: City lights brighten the night sky, hiding faint, distant objects.
• Blocked Wavelengths: Earth's atmosphere acts like a shield, blocking most ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma rays from reaching ground telescopes.

By placing a telescope above the atmosphere in orbit, astronomers could get super-sharp images and detect all forms of invisible cosmic light.

Launching the First Space Observatories

Roman organized and funded dozens of pioneering missions during her twenty-one years at NASA.

Orbiting Solar Observatories

Between 1961 and 1963, Roman managed the Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO) project. The Sun shoots out dangerous radiation and solar flares that are hard to study from the ground.

Roman oversaw the creation and launch of OSO 1 in May 1962. It sent back valuable data about solar ultraviolet rays and X-rays. NASA followed it with OSO 2 and OSO 3, helping scientists understand how the Sun affects space weather near Earth.

Orbiting Astronomical Observatories

Roman led the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO) program. These were the true ancestors of modern space telescopes.

Building these satellites was very difficult. The first attempt, OAO-1, suffered a power system failure shortly after reaching orbit in 1966. Roman remained calm and explained that inventing new space technology involves solving unexpected problems.

Her team launched Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 in December 1968. It became the world's first successful optical space telescope. In 1972, NASA launched OAO-3, nicknamed Copernicus, which studied ultraviolet light from stars for nearly a decade.

Exploring X-Rays, Gamma Rays, and Infrared Light

Roman also directed programs that launched smaller, specialized satellites to map energetic cosmic rays:

• Uhuru (1970): The first dedicated X-ray astronomy satellite, which discovered hundreds of X-ray sources, including black hole candidates.
• Small Astronomy Satellite 2 (1972): A satellite that created the first detailed map of cosmic gamma-ray skies.
• Small Astronomy Satellite 3 (1975): A high-precision X-ray satellite that pinpointed the exact locations of mysterious deep-space objects.

She also founded NASA's airborne astronomy program. In 1968, she placed a 12-inch telescope inside a high-flying jet. This program led to the famous Kuiper Airborne Observatory in 1974, carrying a 36-inch telescope high above water vapor to capture clear infrared images.

The Mother of the Hubble Space Telescope

Roman's greatest and most famous project was the planning of what is now known as the Hubble Space Telescope.

Dreaming of a Giant Space Telescope

Astronomer Lyman Spitzer had proposed the theoretical idea of a large space telescope back in 1946. However, nobody knew how to build, launch, or control such a massive machine.

Roman decided that NASA needed to take practical, step-by-step actions. She used the smaller OAO satellites to test pointing systems and computer controls. Once those systems worked reliably, she organized the Large Space Telescope project.

In 1971, Roman created the Science Steering Group for the project. She brought together top engineers and university astronomers to design a giant space observatory that could be serviced by astronauts in orbit.

Convincing Leaders and Finding Funding

Building a giant space telescope required hundreds of millions of dollars. Many government officials were hesitant to approve the huge budget.

Roman worked tirelessly to keep the project alive:

• She met with members of the United States Congress to explain how the telescope would benefit human knowledge.
• She organized informational dinners with top government leaders and scientists.
• She convinced the scientific community to unite behind one shared design.
• She insisted on using advanced digital imaging sensors called CCDs (charge-coupled devices), which became standard in digital cameras.

Because she organized the scientists, defended the budget, and designed the project structure, she became known around the world as the "Mother of Hubble."

Although Hubble launched in 1990 after she retired, its success was built directly on the foundation Roman constructed during the 1960s and 1970s.

Later Life, Teaching, and Legacy

Roman retired from NASA in 1979 to care for her aging mother, but she never stopped working in science.

Computers, Data, and Teaching Kids

After leaving NASA, Roman taught herself the computer programming language FORTRAN. From 1980 to 1988, she worked as an engineering and computing consultant.

In 1995, she returned to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to lead the Astronomical Data Center, helping organize digital space catalogs for researchers worldwide.

Between 2000 and 2003, Roman visited schools to teach astronomy to junior high and high school students. She spent extra time training science teachers in underserved school districts. She also volunteered for ten years recording audio versions of astronomy textbooks for blind and dyslexic students.

Roman passed away on December 25, 2018, at the age of 93, leaving behind an incredible legacy of discovery.

Honors and Tributes

Roman received many awards and honors throughout her life:

• Federal Woman's Award (1962): Given to outstanding female leaders in government.
• NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (1969): NASA's highest honor for scientific work.
• Asteroid 2516 Roman: An asteroid orbiting the Sun was named in her honor.
• LEGO Women of NASA (2017): A special LEGO set featured a mini-figurine of Roman holding a model of the Hubble Space Telescope alongside other famous women space pioneers.
• Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: NASA named its next giant flagship space observatory after her.

Selected Scientific Papers

During her long research career, Roman published 97 scientific papers. Some of her most famous works include:

• The Ursa Major Group (1949) – Her doctoral research on star clusters.
• A Correlation Between the Velocities and Spectra of Stars (1950) – Her landmark paper on star chemistry and motions.
• The Spectrum of AG Draconis (1953) – Her analysis of an unusual variable star.
• A Catalog of High-Velocity Stars (1955) – Her extensive list of fast-moving stars.

Summary of Nancy Grace Roman's Life

Nancy Grace Roman showed that curiosity, determination, and hard work can unlock the secrets of the universe. When obstacles stood in her way, she stayed focused on her love for astronomy.

Her vision transformed how humanity looks at space. Without her leadership, modern space observatories like Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the Roman Space Telescope might never have existed.