What Stars Are Made Of

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, one of the greatest astronomers of all time, and an unsung hero.

“I was to blame for not having pressed my point. I had given in to authority when I believed I was right…I note it here as a warning to the young. If you are sure of your facts, you should defend your position.” -Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

Every night, millions of tiny sparkles scatter across the sky, lighting up the pitch-black atmosphere. Every night, the sparkling dots are available for us to view. Every night, we gaze at the same objects our ancestors had countless times. Stars were there from the very beginning of Earth’s creation and long before that. They existed through the first organisms on Earth, the age of dinosaurs, beyond the process of human creation. Centuries ago, ancient civilizations believed that the stars were signs from the gods or were divine figures. Even as science developed, until the early 1900s, stars were believed to be made of the same elements as Earth. No one could have uncovered the real chemical element forming the stars. No one, but Cecilia Payne. 

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, a student at Radcliffe College of Harvard University, spent countless hours studying the stellar atmospheres. In the process of her research, she discovered the groundbreaking truth of the composition of stars. This disproved the current belief at the time and posed a serious question: What are stars actually made of? 

Throughout her life, Payne demonstrated strength as a woman in the world of science, a world of male superiority. Never giving up on what she loved doing, she fought through the hardships and obstacles that stood in her way. She was a leader who achieved great things against all odds, further assisting in the development of astronomical science. 

Cecilia Payne was born in Wendover, England, on May 10, 1900. From a young age, she was a gifted child interested in science. She attended St Paul’s School for Girls in London, which was well known for its education, especially in the science field. In a biography article on Cecilia Payne, Sidney Perkowitz looks into the aspiring scientist’s early education. “Her advanced science education began in 1919 when she entered Newnham College at the University of Cambridge on a scholarship. There, she studied botany, her first love, as well as physics and chemistry— despite the fact that at the time, the university did not offer degrees to women.” Interested in delving into the developing areas of relativity and quantum mechanics, Payne carried on with her studies at Cambridge. However, the obstacles in Payne’s life in Cambridge continued to disrupt her pathway. 

Sexism followed everywhere she went; at the time, women weren’t welcomed into the world of science. In fact, she was the only woman in Ernest Rutherford’s physics class. Very often, she found herself humiliated by the physics instructor. In her autobiography, Cecilia recalls her memories in the classroom. “At every lecture Rutherford would gaze at me pointedly, as I sat by myself under his very nose, and would begin in his stentorian voice: 'Ladies and Gentlemen'. All the boys regularly greeted this witticism with thunderous applause, stamping with their feet in the traditional manner, and at every lecture I wished I could sink into the earth.” 

A starry night sky.

Soon after, Payne realized that there was little chance for her to advance beyond a teaching role in England. Women simply had no opportunities to succeed in their aspirations as scientists. Fortunately for her, a new path led her to a great opportunity. Britannica's biography on Payne’s life explains the transition in her educational path. “In 1923 she received a fellowship to study at the Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., after a correspondence with its director, Harlow Shapley.” Soon after, Payne left England to continue her studies in the United States, where she believed there would be more open opportunities for her career. 

Payne did not give up even in the darkest of times. She wanted to continue with what she loved doing and even took risks to do so. When she could not succeed in her current environment, she realized that she must find another path. In this event, Payne demonstrated two very important aspects of leadership: resilience and risk-taking. 

When Payne arrived at Harvard, the stellar spectra, the pattern of light produced or absorbed by stars, were being studied. In its article on the life of Cecilia Payne, the American Museum of Natural History explained the stellar spectra and how many astronomers, as well as Payne, had studied it. At first, astronomers assumed that stars were composed of heavy elements after identifying calcium and iron producing the most prominent spectral lines. “In fact, Henry Norris Russell at Princeton had concluded that if the Earth’s crust were heated to the temperature of the Sun, its spectrum would look nearly the same.” Naturally, it was believed that the stars were made of the same elements as Earth. 

However, a different result was shown in Payne’s study. In the process of her research, she made a revolutionary discovery that would change the entire future of stellar research. “Payne began a long project to measure the absorption lines in stellar spectra, and within two years produced a thesis for her doctoral degree, the first awarded for work at Harvard College Observatory…She discovered, surprisingly, that the Sun and the other stars are composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, the two lightest elements.” 

Following this impressive discovery, Shapley sent her thesis to Professor Henry Norris Russell at Princeton. This, however, was met with a discouraging response. He “informed her that the result was ‘clearly impossible,’” and to “protect her career, Payne inserted a statement in her thesis that the calculated abundances of hydrogen and helium were ‘almost certainly not real.’” 

Despite this incident, Payne was rewarded with the honor of being the first person to receive a PhD in astronomy from Radcliffe College as a result of her thesis. Unfortunately, she was unable to be granted the degree from Harvard because the chair of the physics department refused to accept a woman. Yet, many astronomers later commented that her work was “undoubtedly the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy.” 

Her thesis would later be regarded as one of the most important astrophysics documents. Not only did she prove herself as one of the most brilliant astronomers of all time, but she also inspired many future astronomers to study her work. Even as a woman in a male-dominated field, she served as a role model and opened doors for other women in science. 

In 1929 however, another barrier blocked her path to success. Henry Russell, her advisor who had rejected her earlier findings about the stars’ composition, published the same results and was credited and received attention for the findings. There are many controversies on whether Russell “stole” Payne’s work. He acknowledged Payne’s work but did not mention his earlier rejection of the idea. Many argue that he minimized her contribution and credit to make the work appear as his own. However, one thing was for sure: as a woman scientist in that era, Payne was overlooked and did not receive the full recognition she deserved. 

Stellar Atmospheres: Cecilia Payne’s Harvard University PhD thesis from 1925

Her gender continued to affect her throughout her entire career. Caitlin Hofmeister, the host of the SciShow Space video, Great Minds of Astronomy: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, describes how Payne “...spent most of her life working as a technical assistant at Harvard. She taught a full course load and many of her students went on to have prominent careers in astronomy.” Despite her hard work, she was never given the proper title of “professor” and was poorly paid. Even the dean and president of Harvard, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, informed Shapley that Payne “would never have a position in the University as long as he was alive.” 

When Shapley later began to build the Department of Astronomy at Harvard, he considered Payne as a candidate to be the first chair. However, because he knew that Lowell would never accept it, the position was not given to Payne. The American Museum of Natural History describes another time when she was taken away from an opportunity. “Despite being indisputably one of the most brilliant and creative astronomers of the twentieth century, Cecilia Payne was never elected to the elite National Academy of Sciences.” 

This all began to change in 1954 when Shapley retired and Donald Menzel became the director of the Observatory. Soon, he was able to appoint Payne as an astronomy professor at Harvard in 1956. She was the first woman to be promoted to full professorship at Harvard. A few months later, she became chair of the astronomy department and became the first woman to head a department at Harvard. 

Despite the many obstacles she faced, Cecilia Payne’s hard work ultimately led her to a point in her life where she achieved great success and made significant contributions to science. Had she given up in the midst of all her difficulties, she wouldn’t have gotten far in her career path. Her perseverance and daring personality left a lasting legacy that should be remembered and influence how we take our next steps. 

Cecilia Payne may not fit in the ‘leader’ label that most defines as someone who directs and controls. A person doesn’t have to be well-known to be a leader. A leader shouldn’t be someone others follow and take commands from. Moreover, they should be a figure that many can look up to and find inspiration from. They are stars who are made with traits of perseverance, determination, resilience, and risk-taking while also encouraging others to achieve their goals. Ultimately, being a ‘leader’ is less about authority and more about the influence they have on others. 

Cecilia Payne shone brightly amongst many other stars. While many aren’t aware of who she is, she paved the path for future successes for women in the astronomical field. Her story demonstrated the barriers and sexism that affected women in science and how it affected their careers. She faced many hardships in her career as a woman in science but demonstrated a strong stand on who she was and what she was capable of. She was, and is, a star astrophysicist who should be widely recognized as a role model and as a leader we can all look up to. 

Works Cited

American Museum of Natural History. “Cecilia Payne: Discoverer of the Chemical Makeup of Stars | AMNH.” American Museum of Natural History, 2020, www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections/cosmic-horizons-book/cecilia-payne-profile.

Gregersen, Erik . “Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin | British-Born American Astronomer.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Cecilia-Payne-Gaposchkin. 

Perkowitz, Sidney. “Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: The Woman Who Found Hydrogen in the Stars.” Physics World, 8 Mar. 2022, physicsworld.com/a/cecilia-payne-gaposchkin-the-woman-who-found-hydrogen-in-the-stars/.

Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia, and Katherine Haramundanis. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin : An Autobiography and Other Recollections. Cambridge ; New York, Cambridge University Press, 1996. SciShow Space. “Great Minds of Astronomy: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin.” YouTube, 7 Oct. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_qF-jTY2zY.