Vera Rubin

1928–2016 · American astronomer and physicist

Topics: learning, physics

• Science is competitive, aggressive, demanding. It is also imaginative, inspiring, uplifting.

  — Vera Rubin

• How stars move tell us that most matter in the universe is dark. When we see stars in the sky, we're only seeing five or 10 percent of the matter that there is in the universe.

  — Vera Rubin

• We have peered into a new world and have seen that it is more mysterious and more complex than we had imagined. Still more mysteries of the universe remain hidden. Their discovery awaits the adventurous scientists of the future. I like it this way.

  — Vera Rubin

• Science progresses best when observations force us to alter our preconceptions.

  — Vera Rubin