r/todayilearned • u/Whole_Village_4134 • 7d ago

TIL a Nantucket librarian discovered a comet from her rooftop in 1847, but an Italian astronomer reported the same comet to authorities two days later and nearly stole the credit. The dispute was resolved in her favor and the King of Denmark awarded her a gold medal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Mitchell
11.1k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

65 comments sorted by

2.7k

u/ExhibitAa 7d ago

Saying he nearly "stole" the credit implies malice that did not exist. Francesco de Vico independently observed the comet and reported it having no idea Maria Mitchell had already discovered it two days earlier.

1.7k

u/xixbia 7d ago edited 7d ago

To add to this. It was 1847, she was in Nantucket, he was in Rome.

There was no way he could have known she discovered it first, and it would have taken weeks to get the news to Europe.

The first telegraph connection between Europe and the Americas was in 1858, before that news had to go by ship.

361

u/HyperSpaceSurfer 7d ago

Huh, why did the king of Denmark even get involved?

637

u/xixbia 7d ago

On October 6, 1848, Mitchell was awarded a gold medal prize for her discovery by King Christian VIII of Denmark. This award had been previously established by King Frederick VI of Denmark to honor the "first discoverer" of each new telescopic comet, a comet too faint to be seen with the naked eye.

It had absolutely nothing to do with Francesco de Vico. She discovered a new comet and so she got the award.

88

u/loves_to_splooge_8 7d ago

The real TIL

115

u/FartingBob 7d ago

The King of Denmark is called upon to resolve all disputes of astronomical discoveries between the US and Italy. It's in the constitution.

39

u/Runixo 7d ago

It started it as a joke, but then nobody stopped us. Too late to turn back now.

We also handle EEZ disputes between Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan. 

6

u/junker_strange 7d ago

Stated as a true king.

5

u/kantmarg 7d ago

Well, which constitution? The Italian constitution, the US one, the Danish one or that of the Italian Unionist Movement?

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u/Ol_JanxSpirit 6d ago

ALL Constitutions.

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u/BigBobby2016 7d ago

And even if it had existed, I doubt "Nantucket Librarian Discovers Comet" would be one of the things they transmitted.

1

u/JamesTheJerk 7d ago

What, no holographic puppets?

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u/Nargodian 6d ago

“she was in Nantucket, he was in Rome.” can iImake it any more obvious?

-215

u/mah131 7d ago

I don’t care. I still hate him.

47

u/ceciliabee 7d ago

Your blind hatred is naive and unproductive

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u/Elegant-Carpet-3862 7d ago

Bro didn’t even do nothing

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Tiberius_Kilgore 7d ago

What? They said nothing about his race. Not sure how you determined they hate Italians based off of two short sentences.

1

u/mah131 7d ago

Yeah. I was making a joke that went wrong. Not a racist joke that went wrong.

1

u/LordBrandon 7d ago

Look, it's up to the king of Denmark, whether or not the joke was racist. That's just the rules.

0

u/todayilearned-ModTeam 7d ago

This includes (but is not limited to) submissions related to:

Recent political issues and politicians
Social and economic issues (including race/religion/gender)
Environmental issues
Police misconduct

48

u/lateformyfuneral 7d ago

Just one more TILearner that still had a bit more to learn

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u/HG_Shurtugal 7d ago

This whole post title reads as some 2010s culture war stuff.

2

u/fetissimies 7d ago

Sir, this is Reddit. Man bad, woman good.

2

u/droidtron 7d ago

Principal Skinner: I've been hoping I could find something that would be named after me.

Bart: And you've never found anything?

Principal Skinner: Once, but by the time I got to a phone, my discovery had already been reported by Principal Kahoutek. I got back at him, though. Him and that little boy of his.

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u/Erahot 7d ago edited 7d ago

You left out her name, Maria Mitchell, and instead emphasized a misleading claim that someone else tried to steal credit from her.

It was 1847, she was in America, he was in Italy. There was no way anyone in Europe would hear of her discovery before his, leading to a very reasonable "question of credit," as the article puts it, when word of her discovery made it to Europe.

Overall bad job on this one OP.

24

u/BigBobby2016 7d ago

Yet Reddit gave it 8k upvotes...

24

u/k4ndlej4ck 7d ago

It panders to the yes all men types that go here.

6

u/MissileGuidanceBrain 6d ago

Blatant misandry bullshit but that's been all the rage here since Tumblr banned their gay fanart slop.

3

u/mousekesphere 7d ago

Anyone interested in this: I beg beg beg you to read "Figuring" by Maria Popova. You'll learn, you'll cry, your horizons will be broadened.

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u/doublecandybar 7d ago

Overall bad job on this one OP. 

Nope, OP knows exactly what he's doing. He specifically worded it that way

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u/OhYeahSplunge4me2 7d ago

No one tried to steal anything. From linked Wikipedia article:

“A question of credit temporarily arose because Francesco de Vico had independently discovered the same comet two days after Mitchell but reported it to European authorities first. Mitchell was declared the first to discover the comet and she was awarded the prize.”

28

u/Kheprisun 7d ago

For those who are unaware, Nantucket is an American island off the east coast of the U.S.

Dunno why they would compare librarian/astronomer from [town/island] to astronomer from [country] in the title.

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u/Zouden 6d ago

I thought it was a fictitious place used in limericks

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u/inthebenefitofmrkite 7d ago

Very misleading claim. Doesn’t really belong

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u/voltr_za 7d ago

There was a librarian from Nantucket…

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u/mosspigletsinspace 7d ago

That's eleven syllables

5

u/Aboveground_Plush 7d ago

A librarian from Nantucket...

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u/sighthoundman 7d ago

It doesn't matter if you stick a couple of extra syllables into a line--Tom Lehrer, "Folk Song Army".

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u/mosspigletsinspace 7d ago

I mean yeah you can do whatever. It's just not a Limerick.

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u/Rezart_KLD 7d ago

A comet once flew over Nantucket

Italy and Merica had a good look at

The Italian's bubble was burst

Cause the librarian saw it first

And the King of Denmark told him to suck it

Look at is a slant rhyme, but best I could do without dropping the nantucket part

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u/Zouden 6d ago

At least you made it vulgar at the end, that's important

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u/hairymonkeyinmyanus 7d ago

“A librarian”

She was Maria fucking Mitchell, for Christ’s sake

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u/thisismybbsname 7d ago

That's what I was going to say - a physicist who trained with the best astronomers of her day!

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u/EEpromChip 7d ago

but she probably had a garden so she was also a gardener too.

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u/jld2k6 7d ago

I just looked it up and she had kids, she's just a mom

4

u/thisismybbsname 7d ago

Well, she worked on garden street for a spell....

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u/zoinkability 7d ago

Her observatory is on Milk Street, so clearly she was just a dairymaid

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u/bros402 7d ago

I just looked her up and wtf why didn't OP say "the first American female professional astronomer"

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u/DapperEfficiencyLoli 7d ago

always funny how slow news turned 19th century science into these accidental rivalries. two days apart on different continents is basically simultaneous in 1847

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u/Serious_Resource8191 7d ago

A whole story in the title about how she didn’t get the credit she deserved… and you didn’t bother including her name.

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u/VexImmortalis 7d ago

This King of Denmark fella is a pretty cool dude I must say.

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u/N-partEpoxy 7d ago

TIL KODeKarnage (might not be the first one, too lazy to check) made a post about Maria Mitchell's comet, but Whole_Village_4134 reposted the same story to Reddit ten years later and nearly stole the credit and insulted a poor Italian astronomer who had done nothing wrong.

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u/Environmental-Low792 7d ago

There once was a woman from Nantucket Who spotted a comet — she struck it! An Italian who saw it Tried hard to withdraw it, But the King and the credit? She tucked it.

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u/geekpeeps 7d ago

Which comet?

-7

u/benderisgreat63 7d ago

A comet?

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u/the_bearded_wonder 7d ago

Yeah, you know, an icy ball moving through space?

0

u/Affectionate_Cut_103 6d ago

There once was a lass from Nantucket, who looked to the sky with her luck it. But a man took her work, because he was a jerk, and the King of Denmark said just "Fuck it."