Google dedicated its 3D Doodle to Margherita Hack, “the Lady of the stars”, whose 99th birthday is celebrated today. The Doodle portrays her with the asteroid dedicated to her in motion, and a kitten.
Astrophysicist, academic, science popularizer and activist Margherita Hack, was born in Florence on 12 June 1922 and died in Trieste on 29 June 2013, she also defended civil rights by openly supporting causes such as the protection of animals and the equality for all.
In 1964 she moved to Trieste, where she went down in history not only as the first Italian woman to earn a professorship at the city’s university, but also as the first woman director of the Trieste Astronomical Observatory. For over 20 years he has brought the Observatory to world fame. Several international awards then led it to become part of prestigious institutions such as NASA and the European Space Agency. Acclaimed for its dissemination capacity, astrophysics has published dozens of academic articles, several books, and founded two journals devoted to astronomy and the stars.
She has received a number of awards, most notably the asteroid 8558 Hack, which orbits between Mars and Jupiter, named in her honor in 1995. At 90, the Italian government also awarded her the title of Cavaliere di Gran Croce.
«The Foundation has an agreement in place with the Municipality of Trieste to carry out the cataloging of its vast library. It is our most important goal: a place open to the public, which can remember and tell about it. We would like to bring many young people because this was what Margherita wanted – says Marco Santarelli, scientific director of the Margherita Hack Foundation, commenting on the Doodle dedicated to her – We are grateful to Google for this initiative, a digital and international cameo that pays homage to a great scientist and to a splendid person “.
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