ASTRONOMER

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

1900 - 1979

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Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (born Cecilia Helena Payne; (1900-05-10)May 10, 1900 – (1979-12-07)December 7, 1979) was a British-born American astronomer and astrophysicist. Her work on the cosmic makeup of the universe and the nature of variable stars was foundational to modern astrophysics. She determined that stars were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium in her 1925 doctoral thesis. Her groundbreaking conclusion was initially rejected by leading astrophysicists, including Henry Norris Russell, because it contradicted the science of the time, which held that no significant elemental differences distinguished the Sun and Earth. Read more on Wikipedia

Her biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin is the 49th most popular astronomer (up from 145th in 2019), the 511th most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 1,200th in 2019) and the 6th most popular British Astronomer.

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin is most famous for being the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University. Her dissertation was on the composition of the stars, and she was able to show that they were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium.

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Among ASTRONOMERS

Among astronomers, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ranks 49 out of 644. Before her are Clyde Tombaugh, Martin Ryle, Wilhelm Schickard, Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, Michel Mayor, and Arthur Eddington. After her are John Michell, Jérôme Lalande, Adolphe Quetelet, Édouard Stephan, William Alfred Fowler, and Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1900, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ranks 34. Before her are Sándor Márai, Richard Kuhn, Ragnar Granit, Alfred Newman, Hans Fritzsche, and James Hilton. After her are Jan Oort, Kurt Weill, Pak Hon-yong, Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, Karl Wolff, and Arno Breker. Among people deceased in 1979, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ranks 22. Before her are Mika Waltari, Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, Hafizullah Amin, Ludvík Svoboda, Robert Burns Woodward, and Mustafa Barzani. After her are Sonia Delaunay, Hanna Reitsch, Agostinho Neto, Sid Vicious, Feodor Lynen, and Nelson Rockefeller.

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ranks 511 out of 8,785. Before her are Richard Wright (1943), Arthur Eddington (1882), Andrew Irvine (1902), Howard Staunton (1810), Beatrix Potter (1866), and Robert Walpole (1676). After her are John Wesley (1703), William Pitt the Younger (1759), James I of Scotland (1394), Glenn Hughes (1951), Christopher Hogwood (1941), and John Michell (1724).

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Among ASTRONOMERS In United Kingdom

Among astronomers born in United Kingdom, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ranks 6. Before her are Edmond Halley (1656), Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943), William Lassell (1799), Martin Ryle (1918), and Arthur Eddington (1882). After her are John Michell (1724), James Bradley (1693), John Flamsteed (1646), Fred Hoyle (1915), Antony Hewish (1924), and John Russell Hind (1823).

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