Know the scientist: Annie Jump Cannon

Cannon classified over 350,000 and discovered some 300 variable stars and 5 novae

(Subscribe to Science For All, our weekly newsletter, where we aim to take the jargon out of science and put the fun in. .) Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941) was an American astronomer who specialised in cataloguing stars. She, along with Edward Pickering, created the Harvard Classification Scheme based on the stars’ temperatures and spectral types. The International Astronomical Union officially adopted Cannon's system of stellar classification in 1922, and astronomers use it even today. Annie Jump Cannon was born in Dover, Delaware. It was Cannon’s mother, Mary Jump, who instilled an interest for astronomy in Annie Cannon. The mother and daughter duo used an old astronomy book to identify stars. Annie Cannon lost most of her hearing due to scarlet fever sometime during her adult years.