Muriel Mussells Seyfert

Muriel M. Seyfert
Born(1909-02-03)February 3, 1909
DiedNovember 9, 1997(1997-11-09) (aged 88)
Resting placeHall County Memorial Park, Gainesville, GA
34°16′06″N 83°51′46″W / 34.26833°N 83.86278°W / 34.26833; -83.86278
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomer, Portrait artist

Muriel E. Mussells Seyfert (born Muriel Elizabeth Mussells, February 3, 1909 – November 9, 1997) was an American astronomer best known for discovering a "ring nebulae" (planetary nebulae) in the Milky Way while working at the Harvard College Observatory in 1936 as a human computer.

The discovery was picked up by the newswires and reported in newspapers across the country. Articles described the objects as "tremendous rings of star-dust" and that "each is believed to be hundreds of times larger than our entire solar system.".