Henry Norris Russell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1877-10-25)October 25, 1877 Oyster Bay, New York, U.S. |
| Died | February 18, 1957(1957-02-18) (aged 79) Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Princeton University |
| Known for | |
| Awards |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | Princeton University |
| Doctoral advisor | Charles Augustus Young[2] |
| Doctoral students |
|
Henry Norris RussellForMemRSHFRSEFRAS (October 25, 1877 – February 18, 1957) was an Americanastronomer who, along withEjnar Hertzsprung, developed theHertzsprung–Russell diagram (1910). In 1923, working withFrederick Saunders, he developed Russell–Saunders coupling, which is also known asLS coupling.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
Russell was born on 25 October 1877, atOyster Bay, New York, the son of Rev Alexander Gatherer Russell (1845-1911) and his wife, Eliza Hoxie Norris.[11]
After graduating from Princeton Preparatory School in 1893, he studied astronomy atPrinceton University, obtaining hisB.A. in 1897 and his doctorate in 1900, studying underCharles Augustus Young.[9] From 1903 to 1905, he worked at theCambridge Observatory withArthur Robert Hinks as a research assistant of theCarnegie Institution and came under the strong influence ofGeorge Darwin.
He returned to Princeton to become an instructor in astronomy (1905–1908), assistant professor (1908–1911), professor (1911–1927) and research professor (1927–1947). He was also the director of the Princeton University Observatory from 1912 to 1947 whereCharlotte Moore Sitterly helped him measure and calculate the properties of stars.
He died inPrinceton, New Jersey on 18 February 1957 at the age of 79.[12] He is buried inPrinceton Cemetery.
In November 1908 Russell married Lucy May Cole (1881-1968). They had four children. Their youngest daughter, Margaret Russell (1914-1999), married the astronomerFrank K. Edmondson in the 1930s.
Russell co-wrote an influential two-volume textbook in 1927 withRaymond Smith Dugan andJohn Quincy Stewart:Astronomy: A Revision of Young’s Manual of Astronomy (Ginn & Co., Boston, 1926–27, 1938, 1945). This became the standard astronomy textbook for about two decades. There were two volumes: the first wasThe Solar System and the second wasAstrophysics and Stellar Astronomy. The textbook popularized the idea that a star's properties (radius, surface temperature,luminosity, etc.)were largely determined by the star's mass and chemical composition, which became known as theVogt–Russell theorem(including Heinrich Vogt who independently discovered the result). Since a star's chemical composition gradually changes with age (usually in a non-homogeneous fashion),stellar evolution results.
Russell dissuadedCecilia Payne-Gaposchkin from concluding that the composition of the Sun is different from that of the Earth in her thesis, as it contradicted the accepted wisdom at the time. He realized she was correct four years later after deriving the same result by different means. In his paper Russell credited Payne with discovering that the Sun had a different chemical composition from Earth but never shared the rewards of the fame he readily accepted for her work which he’d failed to recognize until years later.[13]
Media related toHenry Norris Russell at Wikimedia Commons
