BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin *new article*

How does the composition of a star affect the temperature? In 1925 a young woman answered this question in her doctoral thesis. Her analysis was a great breakthroughs in astrophysics. Otto Struve described it as 'the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy."

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

In my mini-biography of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, I didn't try to explain her work. That would have made the piece overlong. But I was looking around for some relevant material and found this short video about Cecilia Payne's thesis. The presenter explains it very well.