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The Observatories of Middlebury College

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1925

1925

Cecilia Payne determines that stars are made largely of hydrogen and helium and that stars can be classified by temperature.

Feature Image

A photograph of Cecilia Payne at work.

Harvard College Observatory via Smithsonian Institution

Curated Resources

Arianna Soldati & Brittney Borowiec, “Meet Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Who Figured Out What the Universe Is Made Of,” Massive Science, 9 May 2020.

Amber Karlins, “Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin – Astronomer,” The Heroine Collective, 4 February 2019.

Donovan Moore, “Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: Brief Life of a Breakthrough Astronomer, 1900-1979,” Harvard Magazine, May-June 2020.

Colleen Walsh, “Light Years Ahead: Star Analysts of Harvard College Observatory Struck Dava Sobel as Book-worthy History,” Harvard Gazette, 11 April 2017

Cecilia Payne, “Stellar Atmospheres: A Contribution to the Observational Study of High Temperature in the Reversing Layers of Stars,” Harvard Observatory Monographs, issue 1, 1925.

Dava Sobel, The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars, 2016

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