To the moon and back
Sadly, astrophysicist Lisa Harvey-Smith admits her first experience of astronomy was pretty much a non-event. Expecting to see Halley’s Comet streak brilliantly across the Milky Way, trailing a tail of gas and cosmic dust, the reality proved downright disappointing.
“That was the first time my dad tried to show me the night sky, when I was about six, and it was rubbish,” laughs the straight-talking scientist, gender equity campaigner, best-selling author and LGBTQI advocate. “It was very cloudy, so my first experience of astronomy was not seeing anything at all!”
Fortunately, or a stratospheric career could have been over before it started, the second attempt was more successful. Six years later, Mars approached very close to the Earth and was clearly visible to the naked eye, brighter than all the stars. “We didn’t know what we were looking for, just something red,” recalls the Australian government’s first Women in STEM Ambassador. “But it was great when we found it! I was gobsmacked because it was real science, seeing it for myself. That’s what you have to do, investigate for yourself.”
It’s something British-born Lisa has been doing ever since she
