Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was a British-American astronomer whose analysis of stellar spectra showed that stars consist mainly of hydrogen and helium.

Stellar spectroscopy: The study of light from stars to determine their physical properties and chemical composition. Payne used stellar spectra to measure the relative abundances of elements.
Newnham College, Cambridge: A University of Cambridge college for women, founded in 1871. Payne studied physics and astronomy there before moving to the United States.
Antonia Maury: An American astronomer who developed a detailed system for classifying stellar spectra. Her spectral classifications supplied material for Payne's analysis of stars.
Stellar nucleosynthesis: The creation of chemical elements through nuclear reactions inside stars. Knowing stars are hydrogen-rich helped frame later accounts of how they generate heavier elements.
Saha ionization equation: An equation relating a gas's temperature and pressure to the proportions of its ionized and neutral atoms. Payne applied it to explain how temperature changes the strengths of spectral lines.
Harvard College Observatory: An astronomical research institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts, known for extensive stellar observations and catalogues. Payne joined its research community and built her career there.
Annie Jump Cannon: An American astronomer who classified hundreds of thousands of stellar spectra at Harvard College Observatory. Cannon's classification work organized the observations Payne interpreted physically.
Astrophysics: The branch of astronomy that uses physical laws to explain celestial objects and phenomena. Payne's work made atomic physics central to interpreting stellar observations.
Harvard classification scheme: A system that classifies stars by the patterns of lines in their spectra. The scheme supplied the stellar types whose spectra she analyzed.
Stellar Atmospheres: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin's 1925 doctoral dissertation on the physical conditions and chemical composition of stars. This thesis presented her analysis showing that hydrogen dominates stellar matter.

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