"As a child, Maria Mitchell longed to see beyond her little island of Nantucket. With help from her father, she discovered that, if you knew how to read them, the stars could tell you where you were -- and where you needed to go. Maria spent hours on the roof of her house scanning the sky -- finding constellations, nebulae, meteors, double stars. When the King of Denmark offered a prize to the first person to find a new comet, she did just that. In 1947, Maria discovered "Miss Mitchell's Comet." But she didn't stop there. Maria was a passionate advocate for the rights of women, particularly with respect to higher education. She became one of the first female professors of astronomy and was the first woman member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was an expert in navigation, a librarian and an avid reader, who read every single book in the Nantucket library! Above all she believed that everyone should have the freedom and opportunity to learn about and pursue the things they truly loved."-- Provided by publisher.