Muriel E. Mussells Seyfert (born Muriel Elizabeth Mussells, February 3, 1909 – November 9, 1997) was an American

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 ...

best known for discovering a "ring nebulae" (

planetary nebulae A planetary nebula (PN, plural PNe) is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives. The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelated ...

) in the

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...

while working at the

Harvard College Observatory The Harvard College Observatory (HCO) is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United St ...

in 1936 as a human computer.

Early life

Muriel was born on February 3, 1909, in

Danvers, Massachusetts Danvers is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the Danvers River near the northeastern coast of Massachusetts. The suburb is a fairly short ride from Boston and is also in close proximity to the renowned beaches of Glo ...

, the daughter of George and Stella Mussells.

Scientific contributions

Mussells Seyfert was employed as a human

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

at the

. By examining photographic plates taken at Harvard’s astronomical station at Bloemfontain, South Africa, she discovered three new ring nebulae in the

galaxy in the mid-1930s.

Artist

After moving to Nashville, Tennessee with her husband, Muriel pursued painting and maintained her art studio in the observatory residence (which has since become known as Muriel’s Retreat in her honor). Two of her portraits, one of observatory namesake Arthur Dyer and another of her husband, the first observatory director

Carl Keenan Seyfert Carl Keenan Seyfert (February 11, 1911 – June 13, 1960) was an American astronomer. He is best known for his 1943 research paper on high-excitation line emission from the centers of some spiral galaxies, which are named Seyfert galaxy, Seyfert ...

, are located in the

Dyer Observatory The Dyer Observatory, also known as the Arthur J. Dyer Observatory, is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by Vanderbilt University. Built in 1953, it is located in Nashville, Tennessee, and is the only university facility not located ...

in a stairway leading up to the Seyfert Telescope. On March 18, 1952, a one-night art show of her art work was held at the

Ryman Auditorium Ryman Auditorium (also known as Grand Ole Opry House and Union Gospel Tabernacle) is a 2,362-seat live-performance venue located at 116 Rep. John Lewis Way North, in Nashville, Tennessee. It is best known as the home of the ''Grand Ole Opry'' fr ...

in downtown Nashville.

Personal life

On May 20, 1935, Muriel married

who was the founder and first director of Vanderbilt University's Dyer Observatory in Nashville, Tennessee, and the

Seyfert galaxies Seyfert galaxies are one of the two largest groups of active galaxies, along with quasars. They have quasar-like nuclei (very luminous, distant and bright sources of electromagnetic radiation) with very high surface brightnesses whose spectra ...

and

Seyfert's Sextet Seyfert's Sextet is a group of galaxies about 190 million light-years away in the constellation Serpens. The group appears to contain six members, but one of the galaxies, NGC 6027d, is a background object and another "galaxy," NGC 6027e, is ...

would later be named after him. The couple had two children. Muriel's sister, Sylvia Mussells Lindsay, also worked as a Harvard computer and discovered the first dwarf galaxy, the Sculptor system. She married astronomer

Eric Mervyn Lindsay Eric Mervyn Lindsay FRAS (26 January 1907 – 27 July 1974) was an Irish astronomer. He was born at The Grange near Portadown, County Armagh to Richard and Susan Lindsay. He was educated in Dublin at the King's Hospital School, then attended ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seyfert, Muriel Mussells 1909 births 1997 deaths American women astronomers Harvard Computers 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American scientists