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

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

, writer, and media consultant who lives and works in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, UK. She studied at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

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. In 2008, following a donation of £30 million by alumna Ros Edwards and her husband Steve, it was renamed Murray Edwar ...

. She has served as Public Relations Officer for the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

. 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-reviewed scientific journal of astronomy published by the British Astronomical Association since October 1890. It is currently edited by Philip Jennings and publishes original re ...

. 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. 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. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irela ...

for Cambridgeshire from 1989 to 1993.

Asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

4027 Mitton 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

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 Ralph D. Lorenz is a planetary scientist and engineer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. whose research focuses on understanding surfaces, atmospheres, and their interactions on planetary bodies, especially Titan, Venus, Mars, and Earth. He ...

* ''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 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 women non-fiction writers British science writers Women science writers 21st-century British astronomers 1948 births