Astronomers, Astrophysicists, Astronauts, “M...-”
for the social studies and science classrooms, theme decor.

Antonio de Marchena
Ken Mattingly
Christa McAuliffe
Bruce McCandless II

Jim McDivitt
Pierre Mechain
Charles-Joseph Messier
Edgar Mitchell

Antonio de Marchena
d. c. 1513

Antonio de Marchena was considered by Christopher Columbus to be his only loyal supporter in the royal court of Ferdinand and Isabella - “Your majesties know that I spent seven years in the court pestering you for this; never in the whole time was there found a pilot, nor a sailor, nor a mariner, nor a philosopher, nor an expert in any other science who did not state that my enterprise was false, so I never found support from anyone, save father Friar Antonio de Marchena, beyond that of eternal God.” The Worlds of Christopher Columbus

Ken Mattingly
b. 3-17-1936; Chicago, IL

Ken Mattingly is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon. His scheduled flight with Apollo 13 was cancelled because of exposure to the German measles; he later flew in Apollo 16.

S. Christa McAuliffe (née Corrigan)
b. 9-2-1948; Boston, MA
d. 1-28-1986; died aboard the Space Shuttle ChallengerKen

Sharon Christa McAuliffe, a history teacher, was scheduled to be the first civilian in space as part of the Teacher in Space Program. The program was intended to increase interest in the Space Shuttle program and “demonstrate the reliability of space flight”.

McAuliffe, who was planning on conducting experiments and teaching two lessons from the Space Shuttle Challenger, died as the shuttle broke apart 73 seconds into launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Christa McAuliffe quote~
• “I have a vision of the world as a global village, a world without boundaries. Imagine a history teacher making history!”

US Astronaut Bruce Mccandless II Conducting Space Walk During Challenger IV Space Shuttle Mission, Photographic Print

Bruce McCandless II
b. 6-8-1937; Boston, MA

Bruce McCandless, selected for the NASA program in 1966, logged more than 312 hours in space. During the first of McCandless’ two Space Shuttle missions (STS-41-B, 1984) he made the first untethered, free flight using the Manned Maneuvering Unit; STS-31 launched the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990.

James A. McDivitt
b. 6-10-1929; Chicago, IL (raised Michigan)

Jim McDivitt flew in the Gemini and Apollo programs. He commanded the Gemini 4 for the first space walk.

Pierre Mechain
b. 8-16-1744; Laon, France
d. 9-20-1804; Castellon de la Plana, Spain

Pierre Mechain was a major contributor to the study of deep sky objects.

Charles-Joseph Messier
b. 6-26-1730; Badonviller, France
d. 4-12-1817; Paris

Charles-Joseph Messier catalogued astronomical objects and numbered them M-1 through M-120.

• The Year-Round Messier Marathon Field Guide: With Complete Maps, Charts and Tips to Guide You to Enjoying the Most Famous List of Deep-Sky Objects

Edgar Mitchell
b. 9-17-1930; Hereford, TX

Edgar Mitchell was the lunar modular pilot on the 1971 Apollo 14 mission with Alan Shepard and command modular pilot Stuart Roosa. Mitchell was the sixth person to walk on the Moon.

In 1974 Mitchell founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences “to encourage and conduct research on human potentials.”

Edgar Mitchell quote ~
• “Suddenly, from behind the rim of the Moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth . . . home.”
• “Eventually we must leave Earth – at least a certain number of our progeny must as our sun approaches the end of its solar life cycle. But just as terrestrial explorers have always led the way for settlers, this will also happen extraterrestrially. Earth is our cradle, not our final destiny.” Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, The Way of the Explorer, 1996

Maria Mitchell
b. 8-1-1818; Nantucket, MA
d. 6-28-1889; Lynn, MA

Maria Mitchell, who became the first woman member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1848 and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1850, first gained international attention for discovering a comet (Comet 1847 VI or C/1847 T1) in the fall of 1847 and winning a prize offered by King Frederich VI of Denmark.

Mitchell later worked at the U.S. Nautical Almanac Office and in 1865 became professor of astronomy at Vassar College, the first person (male or female) appointed to the faculty; she was also named as Director of the Vassar College Observatory. When Mitchell learned that despite her tenure, reputation and experience, her salary was less than many younger male professors, she insisted on a salary increase, and got it.

FYI - Mitchell, who was a distant cousin of Benjamin Franklin, also travelled to Europe with Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family.

• Maria Mitchell in Women of Science Composite poster
• Maria Mitchell: A Life in Journals and Letters

August Ferdinand Mobius
b. 10-24-1790; Schulpforta, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
d. 9-26-1868; Leipzig

Mobius, a professor of astronomy, is best known for his discovery of the Möbius strip, “a non-orientable two-dimensional surface with only one side when embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space.”

– or–

A Möbius strip is a two-dimensional surface with only one side. To construct a Möbius strip in three dimensions take a rectangular strip of paper and mark point A on one end and point B on the other, give the strip a half twist (180º) and join the two ends together. It is now possible to start at a point A on the surface and draw a line along the length of the strip that passes through the point which is apparently on the other side of the surface from A.

• The Mobius Strip: Dr. August Mobius's Marvelous Band in Mathematics, Games, Literature, Art, Technology, and Cosmology
• M. C. Escher “Ants” on a Mobius Strip, poster

♲Type the recycle symbol in unicode “♲”

F. Story Musgrave
b. 8-19-1935; Boston, MA

Physician and astronaut F. Story Musgrave participated in six space flights for a total of 1281 hours 59 minutes, 22 seconds in space.

Musgrave is the only astronaut to have flown in all five Space Shuttles (Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavor). He also serviced and repairs the Hubble Space Telescope.

Story Musgrave quote ~
• “When you see a launch from the outside, it's a rather glorious, magnificent thing. Inside, it's the absolute opposite of that. It's 137 decibels. It's shaking. Everything is shaking. You're along for the ride and you want to survive that. So, it's not a joy ride for me. It's what I need to go through to get into the incredible serenity and celestial dance of zero gravity.”