Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin | |
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| Born | Cecilia Helena Payne (1900-05-10)May 10, 1900 Wendover, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Died | December 7, 1979(1979-12-07) (aged 79) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| 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 theSun, more than 3,000,000 observations of variable stars |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives |
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| 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 (bornCecilia Helena Payne;(1900-05-10)May 10, 1900 –(1979-12-07)December 7, 1979) was a British-born Americanastronomer andastrophysicist. Her work on the cosmic makeup of the universe and the nature ofvariable stars was foundational to modern astrophysics.
She determined thatstars were composed primarily ofhydrogen andhelium in her 1925doctoral thesis.[1][2] Her groundbreaking conclusion was initially rejected by leading astrophysicists, includingHenry Norris Russell,[3] because it contradicted the science of the time, which held that no significant elemental differences distinguished theSun andEarth. Independent observations eventually proved that she was correct.[2][3][4]
Despite completing her studies, because she was a woman Payne was not eligible to receive a degree from theUniversity of Cambridge.[5] Similarly in America, she was not eligible to receive a doctoral degree (PhD) for her studies atHarvard University, as they did not grant doctoral degrees to women at the time,[6] instead, she received her doctoral degree fromRadcliffe College[6] – a liberal arts college for women that began as a study program for women within Harvard. She would go on to overcome barriers for women that she encountered in science and her success opened the door for countless women astronomers, including her Harvard colleague,Helen Sawyer Hogg.[7]
While she was a student at Cambridge, Payne was elected to theRoyal Astronomical Society.[8] Later, she became the first recipient of the American Astronomical Society’s prestigiousAnnie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy.[9] In 1956, she was the first woman appointed as a professor and as a department chair at Harvard.[10]
Her work resulted in several published books, includingThe Stars of High Luminosity (1930),Variable Stars (1938), andVariable Stars and Galactic Structure (1954).
Cecilia Helena Payne, born inWendover in Buckinghamshire, England,[11] was one of three children born to Emma Leonora Helena (née Pertz), from an eruditePrussian family, andEdward John Payne, a Londonbarrister. Her father was a historian and musician who had been anOxford fellow.[12] Payne had two distinguished uncles, historianGeorg Heinrich Pertz and theSwedenborgian writerJames John Garth Wilkinson.[13] When Cecilia was four, her father died, leaving her mother to raise the family on her own.
Payne began her formal education in Wendover at a private school run by Elizabeth Edwards.[14] When Payne was twelve, her family moved to London to facilitate the education of her brother,Humfry; he later became an archaeologist. Payne initially attended St. Mary's College, Paddington, where study of mathematics or science was not available to her. In 1918, she transferred toSt. Paul's Girls' School, where her music teacher,Gustav Holst, encouraged her to pursue a career in music. However, Payne decided to focus on science. The following year she won a scholarship covering her expenses atNewnham College, Cambridge University, where she studied physics and chemistry.[12]
Her interest in astronomy began after she attended a lecture byArthur Eddington, detailing his1919 expedition to the island ofPríncipe in theGulf of Guinea off the west coast of Africa to observe and photograph the stars near asolar eclipse as a test ofAlbert Einstein'sgeneral theory of relativity.[15] She said of the lecture: "The result was a complete transformation of my world picture. [...] My world had been so shaken that I experienced something very like a nervous breakdown."[16]: 117 Although she completed her studies, she did not receive an official degree because Cambridge did not grant degrees to women until 1948.[17]
Payne realized that her only career option in the U.K. was to become a teacher, so she looked for grants that would enable her to move to the United States.Leslie Comrie, then a PhD student at Cambridge University, introduced her toHarlow Shapley, the director of theHarvard College Observatory, after a lecture inLondon at theBritish Astronomical Association.[5][15][18] A fellowship established to encourage women to study at the Harvard Observatory enabled Payne to move to the United States to study atHarvard College in 1923.Adelaide Ames had been the first recipient of this fellowship in 1922, with Payne following as the second.
Lawrence H. Aller later described Payne as one of the "most capable go-getters" in Shapley's observatory.[19] She then studied related courses at Harvard via the program for women and Shapley persuaded Payne to write a doctoral dissertation on a topic in astronomy.
In 1925, Payne became the first person to earn a doctoral degree (PhD) in astronomy fromRadcliffe College ofHarvard University.[15][20]: 203–213 Her thesis wasStellar Atmospheres; A Contribution to the Observational Study of High Temperature in the Reversing Layers of Stars.[2][21]
While analyzing glass plates at the Harvard College Observatory,[5] Payne made a groundbreaking discovery by accurately relating thespectral classes ofstars to their measured temperatures using Indian physicistMeghnad Saha'sionization theory. She demonstrated that the great variation in stellarabsorption lines was due to differing amounts ofionization at different temperatures, not to varying amounts of elements. Payne found thatsilicon,carbon, and several commonmetals seen in the Sun's spectrum were present in about the same relative amounts as on Earth, which aligned with the prevailing belief that stars had a similar elemental composition as on Earth, however, she found thathelium, and particularlyhydrogen, were vastly more abundant in stars, with hydrogen being about a million times more prevalent. This discovery was the basis of her conclusion that hydrogen was the overwhelming constituent of stars, making it the most abundant element in the Universe.[22][23]
During the review process of Payne's dissertation,Henry Norris Russell, a pre-eminent astronomer of the day who adhered to the theories of American physicistHenry Rowland, urged her not to assert that the composition of the Sun was predominantly hydrogen, however, because it contradicted the scientific consensus of the time that the elemental composition of the Sun and the Earth were similar.[24] Russell, in a 1914 article, had argued that:
The agreement of the solar and terrestrial lists is such as to confirm very strongly Rowland's opinion that, if the Earth's crust should be raised to the temperature of the Sun's atmosphere, it would give a very similar absorption spectrum. The spectra of the Sun and other stars were similar, so it appeared that the relative abundance of elements in the universe was like that in Earth's crust.[25]
Consequently, Russell described her scientific conclusion as "spurious".[21]: 186 [23] Although she included all calculations and results, Payne accommodated the criticism of her reviewer by including a statement in her thesis that her results were "almost certainly not real".[5]
Four years later, however, Russell realized that Payne had been correct when he derived the same results by different means, effectively demonstrating that hydrogen and helium were the most abundant elements in the Milky Way, just as Payne had concluded in her thesis. Sharing his results professionally in 1929, Russell briefly acknowledged Payne's earlier work and discovery, including the mention that "[t]he most important previous determination of the abundance of the elements by astrophysical means is that by Miss Payne [...]",[26] yet Russell was generally credited for the conclusions Payne had reached four years prior.[26][27]
Nearly 40 years after Payne's thesis was published, professional recognition of her discovery was given to her by astronomerOtto Struve when he described her work as "the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy".[3][10] Today's accepted ratios for hydrogen and helium in theMilky Way Galaxy are ~74% hydrogen and ~24% helium, confirming the results of Payne-Gaposchkin's calculations from 1925.[10]
Her work also resulted in several published books, includingThe Stars of High Luminosity (1930),Variable Stars (1938), andVariable Stars and Galactic Structure (1954).
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After earning her doctorate in 1925, Payne remained at Harvard for the entirety of her academic career. Initially, women were barred from becoming professors at Harvard, so she spent years doing less prestigious, low-paid research. Her early work focused on stars of high luminosity and seeking to understand the structure of theMilky Way.
Later, she surveyed all stars brighter than the tenthmagnitude. She then studiedvariable stars, making more than 1,250,000 observations with her assistants. This work later was extended to theMagellanic Clouds, adding a further 2,000,000 observations of variable stars. These data were used to determine the paths ofstellar evolution. She published her conclusions in her second book,The Stars of High Luminosity (1930).[22]
On a tour throughEurope in 1933, Payne met Russian-bornastrophysicistSergei Illarionovich Gaposchkin [ru] inGermany. She helped him obtain a visa to the United States, where they married in March 1934.[5] Her observations and analysis of variable stars, carried out with Sergei Gaposchkin, laid the basis for all subsequent work on such objects.[2]
Harlow Shapley (the Director of theHarvard College Observatory) had made efforts to improve her position, and in 1938 she was given the title of "Astronomer". In order to get approval for her title, Shapley had assured the university that giving Payne-Gaposchkin this position would not make her equivalent to a professor. Payne later requested that her title be changed to "Phillips Astronomer", anendowed position that would make her an "officer of the university" and Shapley pushed privately for the position to be converted into an explicit professorship as the "Phillips Professor of Astronomy".[16]: 225 [28][20]: 245, 258
Payne-Gaposchkin was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1943.[29]
Nonetheless, the courses she taught were not recorded as available in the Harvard University catalogue until 1945.[2]
WhenDonald Menzel became director of theHarvard College Observatory in 1954, he tried to improve her appointment, and in 1956 she became the first woman to be promoted to full professor from within the faculty atHarvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences.[15] She was appointed the Phillips Professor of Astronomy in 1958.[20]: 245, 258 Later, with her appointment to the Chair of the Department of Astronomy, she also became the first woman to head a department at Harvard.[14]
Her students includedJoseph Ashbrook,Frank Drake,Harlan Smith, andPaul W. Hodge, all of whom made important contributions to astronomy.[30] She also supervisedHelen Sawyer Hogg,Frank Kameny[31] andOwen Gingerich.[32]
Payne-Gaposchkin retired from active teaching in 1966 and subsequently, was appointedProfessor Emerita of Harvard.[4] She continued her research as a member of staff at theSmithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, as well as editing the journals and books published by Harvard Observatory for ten years.[33] She edited and published the lectures ofWalter Baade,Evolution of Stars and Galaxies (1963).[34]
Payne-Gaposchkin's career marked a turning point at Harvard College Observatory. Under the direction ofHarlow Shapley and Dr. E. J. Sheridan (whom Payne-Gaposchkin described as a mentor[16]) the observatory already had offered more opportunities in astronomy to women than did other institutions. This was evident in the achievements accomplished earlier in the century byWilliamina Fleming,Antonia Maury,Annie Jump Cannon, andHenrietta Swan Leavitt. However, with Payne's PhD, women entered the mainstream.[35]
The trail she blazed into the largely male-dominated scientific community was an inspiration to many. For example, she became a role model for astrophysicistJoan Feynman. Feynman's mother and grandmother had dissuaded her from pursuing science, since they believed women were not physically capable of understanding scientific concepts.[36][37][38] Feynman was inspired by Payne-Gaposchkin when she came across her work in an astronomy textbook. Seeing Payne-Gaposchkin's published research convinced Feynman that she could, in fact, follow her scientific passions.[36]
While accepting theHenry Norris Russell Prize from theAmerican Astronomical Society, Payne spoke of her lifelong passion for research: "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."[39]
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In herautobiography, Payne said that while in school she created an experiment on theefficacy of prayer by dividing her exams in two groups, praying for success only on one, the other one being a scientific control group. She achieved the higher marks in the latter group.[16]: 97 Later on, she became anagnostic.[40]
In 1931, Payne became a United States citizen, so she held joint citizenship of both the UK and the US. On a tour through Europe in 1933, she met Russian-born astrophysicistSergei Illarionovich Gaposchkin [ru] (1898-1984) in Germany. She helped him get a visa to the United States. They married in March 1934, settling in the historic town ofLexington, Massachusetts, a short commute from Harvard. Payne added her husband's name to her own, and the Payne-Gaposchkins had three children: Edward, Katherine, and Peter. Payne's daughter remembers her as "an inspired seamstress, an inventive knitter, and a voracious reader". Payne and her family were members of the FirstUnitarian Church in Lexington, where Cecilia taught Sunday school. She was also active with theQuakers.[41]
During the World War II years, work at the observatory was virtually stopped, but Payne and her husband continued, often taking their children with them to work.They lived in Lexington, while on a small farm they had nearTownsend, a neighbour helped them raise pigs and poultry and to deliver meat and eggs to local markets.[20]: 249
She died at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on December 7, 1979, aged 79. Shortly before her death, Payne had her autobiography privately printed asThe Dyer's Hand. It was reprinted later as,Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and Other Recollections.[16]
Payne's younger brother, archaeologistHumfry Payne (1902–1936), who married author and film criticDilys Powell, became director of theBritish School of Archaeology at Athens, where he died in 1936, aged 34.[42] Payne's granddaughter, Cecilia Gaposchkin, is a professor of late medieval cultural history and French history atDartmouth College, New Hampshire.[43][44][45]
Payne-Gaposchkin's children also became scientists: Katherine Haramundanis and Peter John Arthur Gaposchkin became astronomers, and Edward Michael Gaposchkin became a computer scientist and geologist.[46][47][48]
Published academic books:
Significant research papers:
Payne, Humfrey Gilbert Garth... figlio unico dello storico Edward John Payne e di sua moglie Emma Leonora Helena Pertz, nipote di Georg Heinrich Pertz, il curatore dei "Monumenta Germaniae Historica", e di James John Garth Wilkinson, il discepolo di Swedenborg.
{{cite book}}:Check|isbn= value: length (help)Since she actually got better marks in the prayerless group she became, and remained, a devout agnostic.
A September 1956 article inThe Christian Register published by the American Unitarian Association, announced her appointment and described her as a member of the denomination's First Parish and Church in Lexington, Massachusetts.
