Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
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| Born |
Cecilia Helena Payne
May 10, 1900 Wendover, Buckinghamshire, England
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| Died | December 7, 1979 (aged 79) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
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| Citizenship | British United States (from 1931) |
| Education | St Paul's Girls' School |
| Alma mater | Newnham College, Cambridge; Harvard University |
| Known for | Explanation of stellar spectra and composition of the Sun, more than 3,000,000 observations of variable stars |
| Spouse(s) |
Sergei Illarionovich Gaposchkin
(m. 1934) |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards | Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy (1934), Rittenhouse Medal (1961), Award of Merit from Radcliffe College (1952), Henry Norris Russell Prize (1976) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy, astrophysics |
| Institutions | Harvard College Observatory, Harvard University |
| Thesis | Stellar Atmospheres: A contribution to the observational study of high temperature in the reversing layers of stars (1925) |
| Doctoral advisor | Harlow Shapley |
| Doctoral students | Helen Sawyer Hogg, Joseph Ashbrook, Frank Kameny, Frank Drake, Paul W. Hodge |
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Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (born Cecilia Helena Payne; May 10, 1900 – December 7, 1979) was an amazing astronomer and astrophysicist. She was from Britain and later became a citizen of the United States.
In 1925, for her PhD paper, she made a huge discovery. She suggested that stars were mostly made of hydrogen and helium.
At first, other top scientists, like Henry Norris Russell, didn't believe her. This was because her idea went against what everyone thought then: that the Sun and Earth had similar ingredients. But later, other observations proved that Cecilia was right!
Cecilia faced many challenges as a woman in science. For example, she couldn't get a degree from Cambridge University even after finishing her studies. But her work on what the universe is made of and how variable stars behave was super important for how we understand space today.
She was chosen to be part of the Royal Astronomical Society even when she was still a student. Later, she was the first person to win the important Annie J. Cannon award from the American Astronomical Society. Her success also made it easier for many other women to become astronomers, including her friend Helen Sawyer Hogg. In 1956, she became the first woman to be a full professor and lead a department at Harvard University.
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Early Life
Cecilia Helena Payne was born in Wendover, England. She was one of three children. Her father, Edward John Payne, was a lawyer, historian, and musician. He died when Cecilia was only four years old, leaving her mother to raise the family.
Education and Discoveries
Cecilia started school in Wendover. When she was twelve, her family moved to London. She later went to St Paul's Girls' School. Her music teacher, Gustav Holst, encouraged her to study music. But Cecilia decided she wanted to focus on science.
In 1919, she won a scholarship to Newnham College, Cambridge University. There, she studied physics and chemistry.
Her interest in astronomy grew after she heard a lecture by Arthur Eddington. He talked about his trip to observe a solar eclipse in 1919. This trip helped test Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. Cecilia said the lecture completely changed how she saw the world. Even though she finished her studies, Cambridge University did not give degrees to women until 1948, so she didn't get one.
Cecilia realized that in the U.K., her only job option was to be a teacher. She wanted to do more in science, so she looked for ways to move to the United States. In 1923, she moved to the U.S. to study at Harvard College. She received a special scholarship for women to study at the Harvard College Observatory.
Her Amazing PhD Work
Her advisor, Harlow Shapley, encouraged her to write a PhD paper. In 1925, she became the first person to earn a PhD in astronomy from Radcliffe College at Harvard. Her paper was called Stellar Atmospheres; A Contribution to the Observational Study of High Temperature in the Reversing Layers of Stars.
While looking at glass plates at the Harvard College Observatory, Cecilia made a huge discovery. She figured out how the different types of stars (called spectral classes) were related to their actual temperatures. She used a theory by Indian physicist Meghnad Saha.
Cecilia showed that the big differences in a star's light patterns (called absorption lines) were because of different temperatures, not different amounts of elements. She found that elements like silicon, carbon, and other common metals in the Sun were present in similar amounts as on Earth. This fit with what scientists believed then.
However, she also found something surprising: helium and especially hydrogen were much, much more common in stars. Hydrogen was about a million times more common! This led her to conclude that hydrogen was the main ingredient of stars, making it the most common element in the Universe.
When Cecilia's paper was reviewed, Henry Norris Russell, a very important astronomer, told her not to say that the Sun was mostly hydrogen. He said it went against what scientists believed at the time. Russell had argued that the Sun and Earth had similar elements.
Because of this, Russell called her findings "false." Even though she had all the math and results, Cecilia agreed to write in her paper that her results were "almost certainly not real."
But four years later, Russell realized Cecilia had been right! He found the same results using different methods. He showed that hydrogen and helium were indeed the most common elements in the Milky Way galaxy. In 1929, Russell briefly mentioned Cecilia's earlier work. However, he was often given credit for the discovery that she had made years before.
Almost 40 years later, another astronomer, Otto Struve, called her work "the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy." Today, we know that the Milky Way galaxy is about 74% hydrogen and 24% helium. This proves Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin's calculations from 1925 were correct!
Career
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After getting her PhD in 1925, Cecilia stayed at Harvard for her whole career. At first, women were not allowed to be professors at Harvard. So, she spent years doing less important research jobs that didn't pay much.
She first studied very bright stars to understand how our Milky Way galaxy is built. Later, she studied all stars brighter than a certain level of brightness. Then, she focused on variable stars, making over 1,250,000 observations with her helpers. This work was later expanded to the Magellanic Clouds, adding another 2,000,000 observations of variable stars.
This huge amount of data helped scientists understand how stars change and grow over time. She wrote about her findings in her second book, The Stars of High Luminosity (1930).
In 1933, while traveling in Europe, Cecilia met a Russian astrophysicist named Sergei Illarionovich Gaposchkin. She helped him get a visa to the United States, and they got married in March 1934. Her observations and analysis of variable stars, done with Sergei, became the foundation for all later work on these types of stars.
She wrote several books, including The Stars of High Luminosity (1930), Variable Stars (1938), and Variable Stars and Galactic Structure (1954). Harlow Shapley, the Director of the Harvard College Observatory, worked hard to improve her job title. In 1938, she was given the title of "Astronomer."
In 1956, she became the first woman to be promoted to a full professor from within the faculty at Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She was named the Phillips Professor of Astronomy in 1958. Later, she also became the first woman to lead a department at Harvard when she was appointed Chair of the Department of Astronomy.
Many of her students became important astronomers, including Joseph Ashbrook, Frank Drake, and Helen Sawyer Hogg.
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin stopped teaching in 1966. She was then given the title of Professor Emerita of Harvard, meaning she was a retired professor who kept her title. She continued her research at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. She also edited journals and books for Harvard Observatory for ten years.
Legacy
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin's career was a major turning point at Harvard College Observatory. Before her, the observatory already offered more chances for women in astronomy than other places. Women like Williamina Fleming, Antonia Maury, Annie Jump Cannon, and Henrietta Swan Leavitt had already made important discoveries there. But with Cecilia's PhD, women truly became a central part of the scientific community.
She paved the way for many others in the world of science, which was mostly male at the time. For example, she inspired astrophysicist Joan Feynman. Joan's family had told her that women couldn't understand science. But when Joan saw Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin's research in an astronomy textbook, it convinced her that she could follow her own scientific dreams.
When Cecilia received the Henry Norris Russell Prize, she talked about her love for research. She said, "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 understand something. Nothing can compare with that experience [...] The reward of the old scientist is the sense of having seen a vague sketch grow into a masterly landscape."
Personal Life
In her autobiography, Cecilia shared a funny story from school. She tried an experiment about the efficacy of prayer. She divided her exams into two groups. She prayed for success on one group but not the other. She actually got higher marks on the group she didn't pray for! Later in life, she became an agnostic, meaning she wasn't sure if God existed.
In 1931, Cecilia became a citizen of the United States. So, she was a citizen of both the UK and the US. She married Sergei Gaposchkin in March 1934, and they settled in Lexington, Massachusetts. They had three children: Edward, Katherine, and Peter. Cecilia's daughter remembered her as a great seamstress, knitter, and reader. Cecilia and her family were part of the First Unitarian Church in Lexington, where she taught Sunday school. She was also involved with the Quakers.
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin passed away at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on December 7, 1979, at the age of 79. Before she died, she had her autobiography printed privately. It was later published as Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and Other Recollections.
Her younger brother, Humfry Payne, was an archaeologist. He died at a young age in 1936. Cecilia's granddaughter, Cecilia Gaposchkin, is now a professor of history at Dartmouth College.
Honors and Awards
- Elected member of Royal Astronomical Society while still a student at Cambridge (1923)
- Became one of 250 scientists added to the 4th edition of American Men of Science (1927)
- Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy (1934) – first recipient
- Member of the American Philosophical Society (1936)
- Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1943)
- Award of Merit from Radcliffe College (1952)
- Rittenhouse Medal from the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society at the Franklin Institute (1961)
- Professor Emerita of Harvard University (1967)
- Asteroid 2039 Payne-Gaposchkin, discovered in 1974, is named after her
- Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the American Astronomical Society (1976)
- The Institute of Physics Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Medal and Prize named in her honor (2008)
- The American Physical Society's Doctoral Dissertation Award in Astrophysics renamed the Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Doctoral Dissertation Award in Astrophysics (2018)
- One of the ASAS-SN telescopes deployed in South Africa was named after her
- Honorary Degrees from Rutgers University, Wilson College, Smith College, Western College, Colby College, and the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania
- The Payne-Gaposchkin Patera (volcano) on Venus is named after her
See also
In Spanish: Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin para niños
- Harvard Computers, a group of women who worked to process astronomical data at Harvard Observatory
