Henrietta Swan Leavitt was a female astronomer who lead the way for the ability to measure the distance between two planets, along with many other. Leavitt was born to a minister in Lancaster, Massachusetts in 1868. She attended a a higher education at Society for the Collegiate Instruction for Women, now named Radcliffe College. She graduated the college with a Bachelor's degree, but it was not in astronomy, which she would later dedicate her life to. She did take an astronomy class in her senior year of college, but did not study it at first. Leavitt was born as a hearing individual; it was not until she was 24 that she would become ill which would leave her severely deaf. Her career did not start with astronomy until the year 1893. Leavitt
