Stellar Atmospheres - A Contribution to the Observational Study of High Temperature in the Reversing Layer of Stars

This is the book that forever changed astronomy and our understanding of the universe, yet few people know of this book's existence.Dr. Cecilia H. Payne's (Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin) 1925 Harvard University PhD thesis, titled Stellar Atmospheres - A Contribution to the Observational Study of HighTemperature in the Reversing Layer of Stars, proposed that stars were made primarily of hydrogen and helium. This book is the reason that we know that the universe is primarily composed of hydrogen."Her groundbreaking conclusion was initially rejected because it contradicted the scientific wisdom of the time, which held that there were no significant elemental differences between the Sun and Earth. Independent observations eventually proved she was correct. Her work on the nature of variable stars, carried out with her husband, Sergei Gaposchkin, was foundational to modern astrophysics."This paperback is a reprint of her 225-page groundbreaking paper on Stellar Atmospheres. Though Cecilia H. Payne is one of the most important scientists of the modern era, and though she broke the glass ceiling at Harvard, becoming "the first woman to be promoted to full professor from within the faculty at Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences" and later, "she also became the first woman to head a department at Harvard...as Chair of the Department of Astronomy," Payne-Gaposchkin is still a little known name beyond the world of astronomy, though her influence is just now beginning to be acknowledged.This paper, originally published by Cambridge, is divided into three parts: The Physical Groundwork, Theory of Thermal Ionization, and Additional Deductions from Ionization Theory. The book also included appendices, a subject index and a name index. Read more