Google doodle celebrates female Turkish astrophysicist Dilhan Eryurt

A Google doodle for July 20, 2020, celebrated the legacy of Turkish astrophysicist Dilhan Eryurt.
A Google doodle for July 20, 2020, celebrated the legacy of Turkish astrophysicist Dilhan Eryurt. (Image credit: Google)

It's the 51st anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the Google Doodle program is celebrating by commemorating the scientific legacy of Turkish astrophysicist Dilhan Eryurt.

Eryurt lived from 1926 to 2012, studied in Turkey, and worked at, among other institutions, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and the University of California, according to a brief biography compiled by a group of astrophysicists.

Eryurt's research focused on stellar astrophysics, in particular of main-sequence stars like our sun. You can read some of her publications here.

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In the Google Doodle, Eryurt is shown looking out on a sky full of stars, as well as a few planetary bodies, including the moon, and a Saturn V rocket, a nod to her time at NASA during the Apollo program.

In the late 1970s, she was also one of a group of scientists who encouraged the Turkish government to establish a national observatory, according to a paper recounting the history of astronomy in Turkey.

The project broke ground in 1991 and made its first observations in 1997.

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Meghan Bartels
Senior Writer

Meghan is a senior writer at Space.com and has more than five years' experience as a science journalist based in New York City. She joined Space.com in July 2018, with previous writing published in outlets including Newsweek and Audubon. Meghan earned an MA in science journalism from New York University and a BA in classics from Georgetown University, and in her free time she enjoys reading and visiting museums. Follow her on Twitter at @meghanbartels.