Payne’s Ph.D. thesis on stellar atmospheres, which led to the observation that hydrogen and helium are the main elements of the stars, was regarded by prominent astronomers as Payne completed her studies in 1923 but was not granted a degree owing to her sex. The reversing-layer concept collapsed in principle around 1920 on the basis that the limb-darkening of the Sun would be quite different from that observed. Deep learning for the Sun
Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin was a British–American astronomer and astrophysicist who, in 1925, proposed in her Ph.D. thesis an explanation for the composition of stars in terms of the relative abundances of hydrogen and helium. As eloquently pointed out by “The reward of the young scientist is the emotional thrill of being the first person in the history of the world to see something or to understand something.
However, the period represented a “golden age” for physics at Cambridge since, apart from Eddington, there were the Cavendish giants of J J Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, J W Chadwick, F W Aston and C T R Wilson, whose cloud chamber was located at the Solar Physics Observatory in Madingley Road. Historical: Caroline Herschel (1750–1848) Discovered eight comets.. Annie Jump Cannon (1863–1941) Devised the basic method for classifying the stars.. Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868–1921) Discovered the first accurate method for measuring great distances in space.. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900–1979) Proved that hydrogen is the most abundant chemical element in the stars.
Payne remained at Harvard for the rest of her academic career. by studying these glass plates and publishing their findings with their director, Edward Pickering. Her scientific career was active until her death in 1979. History at your fingertips Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: the first to describe what stars are made of Get 3 issues of BBC Science Focus Magazine for just £5 Payne-Gaposchkin was a woman of many firsts: the first to receive a PhD from Radcliffe College, the first to be professor at Harvard, and …
Payne-Gaposchkin's dissertation was, according to Otto Struve and Velta Zeberg "undoubtedly the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy." The amount of each element present in a star can be inferred from the strengths of the absorption lines in the star’s spectrum, if these are controlled for the temperature and pressure of the star. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was in love with science.
Even late in life she still considered Eddington to be “the greatest man I have been privileged to know”.