'Miss Mitchell's Comet' Streaks Across Google Doodle Today

There might be a few space fans working at Google. The search engine is honoring Maria Mitchell — the first American woman who worked as a professional astronomer — with a doodle to celebrate what would be her 195th birthday.

Mitchell discovered a comet in 1847 by searching the skies with a telescope on the roof of the bank where her father worked in Nantucket, Mass. The king of Denmark awarded her a gold medal for her discovery, known as "Miss Mitchell's Comet." She became a professor of astronomy at Vassar College in 1865. Mitchell died in 1889 after retiring from teaching for health reasons a year earlier, officials from the Maria Mitchell Association wrote on their website. "We especially need imagination in science," Mitchell is quoted as saying. "It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry." Visit Google.com to see the special doodle.

This isn't the first space-themed doodle this year. Google commemorated the 66th anniversary of the "UFO" incident in Roswell, N.M. with a special game as the doodle for the day in early July.

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