Maria Mitchell（1818-1889）, the first woman astronomer（天文学家）in the United States, was born in Nantucket. Massachusetts. Her parents valued education insisted on giving her the same quality of education that boys received.Her father. William Mitchell, was an astronomer teacher himself. When he built his own school, Maria became a student also a teaching assistant to him. At home. Maria’s father taught her to watch the stars other natural objects in space using his personal telescope（望远镜）.
Later she went to work at the library of the Nantucket Atheneum. Over the next twenty years. she further developed her interest in reading as many books as she could.She spent her nights watching the sky closely with her father.
On October 1, 1847,Maria discovered a comet（彗星）by merely using a two-inch telescope. Some years before, King Frederick VI of Denmark had set up prizes to each discover of a"telescopic comet". The prize was to be given to the"first discoverer"of each such comet because comets were often discovered by more than one person.
There was once a question of who should be the winner. As the story goes, francesco de Vico had discovered the same comet two days later, but had reported it to the European official organization first. However, after some discussion this was settled in Mitchell’ s favor. She won the prize in 1848 became a big name the world over. The comet was named “Miss Mitchell’ s Comet.”
Who played the most important role in Maria's great achievement?