Payne concludes that stars are mostly hydrogen - and disclaims it
Cecilia Payne's Radcliffe doctoral thesis Stellar Atmospheres applied Saha ionisation theory to stellar spectra and derived overwhelming abundances of hydrogen and helium. Henry Norris Russell judged the result impossible, and the thesis as submitted states that the enormous abundance derived for those elements is almost certainly not real. Russell reached a compatible result by a different route in 1929 and acknowledged the agreement. Every subsequent statement about stellar fuel supplies and lifetimes depends on the conclusion she had been persuaded to disown.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin · person · United Kingdom / United States · not located
- Henry Norris Russell · person · United States · not located
- The Sun · celestial body · Solar System · not located
- Hydrogen fusion: the proton-proton chain and the CNO cycle · phenomenon · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Stellar Atmospheres
Applies Saha ionisation theory to stellar spectra and derives overwhelming hydrogen and helium abundances, with the conclusion disclaimed in the submitted text. The thesis was not consulted; the account, including the "almost certainly not real" wording and Russell's intervention, is taken from Harvard Wolbach Library and American Physical Society summaries read via search. The monograph number should be checked before publication.
Radcliffe College / Harvard College Observatory · 1925 · Partly verified
Cecilia H. Payne, doctoral thesis, Radcliffe College (1925), published as Harvard Observatory Monograph No. 1
Recorded on Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
- Hertzsprung and Russell independently plot luminosity against temperature
- Payne concludes that stars are mostly hydrogen - and disclaims it
- Neutrinos from the solar CNO cycle are detected
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.