Muriel Mussells Seyfert

Muriel E. Mussells Seyfert was an American astronomer best known for discovering three "ring nebulae" in the Milky Way while working at the Harvard College Observatory as a human Computer from 1927-1936. The discovery was picked up by the newswires and reported in newspapers across the country. Articles described the objects as "tremendous rings of star-dust" and that "each is believed to be hundreds of times larger than our entire solar system." She is credited for identifying over 100,000 previously unknown galaxies during her time at Harvard "being uniquely skilled at identifying faint galaxies that were difficult to detect." The idea that there were any other galaxies in the universe was only a few years old; her diligent work made a significant impact on the scientific community's understanding of the cosmos.