Who was Dilhan Eryurt? Google Doodle celebrates Turkish astrophysicist and NASA scientist

DILHAN ERYURT'S life is being celebrated in today's Google Doodle.

The Turkish astrophysicist was known for her research with Nasa on the Sun and stars, helping with future space flights.

Who was Dilhan Eryurt?

Professor Doctor Dilhan Eryurt was born November 29, 1926, in Izmir in the west of Turkey.

But she did not remain in her home city for long, moving firstly to Istanbul and then to the nation's capital of Ankara.

It was in high school there that she picked up a love for mathematics, eventually going on to study in the subject at university - only to gain an interest in astronomy.

After completing her studies, Eryurt helped open an astronomy department at Ankara University, before getting her doctorate there in 1953 after spending time at the University of Michigan.

She later had a two-year scholarship in Canada, the professor headed for the US, firstly to Indiana University, before working at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

At the time, Eryurt was the only female astronomer working at the institution - and she made great breakthroughs in relation to the solar system's biggest star.

She learnt that the brightness of the Sun had decreased during its 4.5 billion years lifespan, meaning it was warmer and brighter in the past.

This influenced research into space flights at the time - before later receiving the Apollo Achievement Award for her work in helping to model the solar impact on the lunar environment for Apollo 11's Moon landing mission.

Eryurt was later sent to work at California University, where she looked the formation and development of Main Sequence stars - a continuous band of stars that appear on plots of stellar colour versus brightness.

In 1968, the professor returned to Turkey to set up their first National Astronomy Congress, only to return to Nasa the following year.

She sadly passed away in Ankara on September 13, 2012, aged 85, due to a heart attack.

What awards did Dilhan Eryurt win?

Eryurt enjoyed a very distinguished career in astrophysics and astronomy, earning her many plaudits.

As well as the Apollo Achievement Award she won Turkey's Tübitak Science Award in 1977.

Why is Google celebrating Dilhan Eryurt today?

Google released their Doodle celebrating Dilhan Eryurt on Monday, July 20, - 51 years after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans ever to land on the moon.

It was her successful work that contributed to the achievement of the Apollo 11 mission.

What is a Google Doodle?

In 1998, the search engine founders Larry and Sergey drew a stick figure behind the second "o" of Google as a message that they were out of office at the Burning Man festival and with that, Google Doodles were born.

The company decided that they should decorate the logo to mark cultural moments and it soon became clear that users really enjoyed the change to the Google homepage.

Now, there is a full team of doodlers, illustrators, graphic designers, animators and classically trained artists who help create what you see on those days.

Google kicked off 2019 with an animated Doodle of New Year's Eve celebrations.

In 2020, Doodles have been created to celebrate essential workers, such as teachers, transport workers and NHS staff, during the coronavirus pandemic.

Google also resurrected a series of interactive games to entertain people during lockdown.