Vera Rubin who helped to discover one of the greatest mysteries of nature has died.    She was the mother of astronomical dark matter investigation.  I won't write about her accomplishments at length ... plenty has been said about them.  In short, she found the first real evidence of dark matter.  She found that something we don't understand, and can't detect by any means other than gravity effects the shape of galaxies.  She did this as a woman in science and provided a beacon for all people who are not the stereotype of a scientist. 



Vera Rubin will forever be on the list of people who,  had they fit the mold  of a "scientist" better, would've won a Nobel prize.  Take solace in the fact that, as Richard Feynman said, the real honor is in seeing others use your work.  Vera, therefore, has a higher honor than any nobel or "breakthrough" prize.   

Discovering the details of the matter she first found evidence for will be the source of work, awards, careers, educations, and lives-in-science for generations to come.


Vera Rubin dead December 25th 2016 at the age of 88.