Hack
Italian astrophysicist and scientific disseminator
Biography
Born in Florence by Roberto Hack, a bookkeeper of Swiss origin, and Maria Luisa Poggetti, a miniaturist at the Uffizi Gallery, Margherita Hack was an Italian astrophysicist and scientific disseminator.
She was an athlete in her youth, in fact she played basketball and competed in track and field during the National University Contest (Littorali under Mussolini's fascist regime).
In these competition she won the long jump and high jump events.
On 19 February 1944, at only 22 she married Aldo De Rosa, one of her childhood playmates.
Hack's education started with the Liceo Classico "Galileo Galilei" in Florence, but due to the World War II, she did't take her exams.
In 1945 she received a degree in physiscs form the University of Florence with a final score of 101/110. Her thesis was on Cepheid variables, previously studied in the Arcetri Observatory with Giorgio Abetti, her model for a scientist, teacher and scientific research.
In Italy Margherita was known for her anti-religious views and her criticism of the Catholic Church.
She was a vegetarian and supported animal welfare. She explained her choice in Perchè sono vegetariana.
On 29 June 2013, at 4:30 am, Margherita Hack take her last breath at Cattinara Hospital, in Trieste.
She had been hospitalized for a week for heart problems, after two years of suffer she refused to have heart surgery, and left her husband Aldo.
He died the following year due to complications of the Alzheimer disease.
They both rest in the cemy of Sant'Anna in Trieste, and their 18000 books have been left to the city.
In her life, Margherita has been a full professor of astronomy in the University of Trieste from 1964 to 1992, when she was placed "out of role" for seniority.
She has been the first Italian woman to administrate the Trieste Astronomical Observatory from 1964 to 1987.
She was a member of the Accademia dei Lincei and also worked at many American and European observatories, being a member of ESA and NASA.
Place and time
Firenze, the city where Margherita was born on 12th June 1922
Trieste, the city where Margherita died on 29th June 2013
What
A list of what Margherita studied during the 91 years of her life
- The Cepheids, a group of changeable stars that mutate their brightness in just 50 days. They are used to calculate the distance of their galaxies.
- The Emetting stars B, a group of stars that are in a quickly rotation and eject substance in rings around the star itself.
- The exploration of the Universe with UV rays, starting from Epsilon Aurigae, a supergiant that is 1000 parsec away from the Sun.
- She wrote over 60 books in her life.
For the importance of this woman, she received lots of awards and also squares and streets names.
She was dedicated the 1995 PC asteroid, now called by the International Astronomical Union 8558 Hack.
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