American astronomer (1877?1957)
Henry Norris Russell
ForMemRS
HFRSE
FRAS
(October 25, 1877 ? February 18, 1957) was an American
astronomer
who, along with
Ejnar Hertzsprung
, developed the
Hertzsprung?Russell diagram
(1910). In 1923, working with
Frederick Saunders
, he developed Russell?Saunders coupling, which is also known as
LS coupling
.
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
Life
[
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]
Russell was born on 25 October 1877, at
Oyster Bay, New York
, the son of Rev Alexander Gatherer Russell (1845-1911) and his wife, Eliza Hoxie Norris.
[11]
After graduating from
George School
in 1895, he studied astronomy at
Princeton University
, obtaining his
B.A.
In 1897 and his doctorate in 1899, studying under
Charles Augustus Young
. From 1903 to 1905, he worked at the
Cambridge Observatory
with
Arthur Robert Hinks
as a research assistant of the
Carnegie Institution
and came under the strong influence of
George Darwin
.
He returned to Princeton to become an instructor in astronomy (1905?1908), assistant professor (1908?1911), professor (1911?1927) and research professor (1927?1947). He was also the director of the Princeton University Observatory from 1912 to 1947 where
Charlotte Moore Sitterly
helped him measure and calculate the properties of stars.
He died in
Princeton, New Jersey
on 18 February 1957 at the age of 79.
[12]
He is buried in
Princeton Cemetery
.
Family
[
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]
In November 1908 Russell married Lucy May Cole (1881-1968). They had four children. Their youngest daughter, Margaret Russell (1914-1999), married the astronomer
Frank K. Edmondson
in the 1930s.
Published work
[
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Russell co-wrote an influential two-volume textbook in 1927 with
Raymond Smith Dugan
and
John Quincy Stewart
:
Astronomy: A Revision of Young’s Manual of Astronomy
(Ginn & Co., Boston, 1926?27, 1938, 1945). This became the standard astronomy textbook for about two decades. There were two volumes: the first was
The Solar System
and the second was
Astrophysics and Stellar Astronomy
. The textbook popularized the idea that a star's properties (radius, surface temperature,
luminosity
, etc.)
were largely determined by the star's mass and chemical composition, which became known as the
Vogt?Russell theorem
(including Heinrich Vogt who independently discovered the result). Since a star's chemical composition
gradually changes with age (usually in a non-homogeneous fashion),
stellar evolution
results.
Russell dissuaded
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
from concluding that the composition of the Sun is different from that of the Earth in her thesis, as it contradicted the accepted wisdom at the time. He realized she was correct four years later after deriving the same result by different means. In his paper Russell credited Payne with discovering that the Sun had a different chemical composition from Earth.
[13]
Awards and honors
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Stratton, F. J. M.
(1957). "Henry Norris Russell 1877-1957".
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society
.
3
: 173?191.
doi
:
10.1098/rsbm.1957.0012
.
JSTOR
769359
.
S2CID
73351903
.
- ^
a
b
Henry Norris Russell
at the
Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ^
David H. DeVorkin,
Henry Norris Russell
- google books
- ^
George Kean Sweetnam,
The Command of Light
- google books
- ^
Henry Norris Russell
—
Biographical Memoirs
of the
National Academy of Sciences
- ^
Obituary MNRAS
118
(1958) 311
- ^
Obituary Obs
77
(1957) 67
- ^
Obituary PASP
69
(1957) 223
- ^
DeVorkin, David H (2000).
Henry Norris Russell: Dean of American Astronomers
.
Princeton University Press
. pp. 528 pages.
ISBN
0-691-04918-1
.
- ^
"Bibliography in Bruce Medalist page for Russell maintained by Joseph Tenn at Sonoma State University"
. Archived from
the original
on 2012-11-08
. Retrieved
2012-11-29
.
- ^
Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783?2002
(PDF)
. The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006.
ISBN
0-902-198-84-X
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2016-03-04
. Retrieved
2018-04-27
.
- ^
Mehra, Jagdish
;
Rechenberg, Helmut
(2001).
The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 1, Part 2
. Springer. p. 686.
ISBN
9780387951751
.
- ^
Padman, Rachael (2004).
"Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900 - 1979)"
.
Newnham College Biographies
. Archived from
the original
on 2009-07-19
. Retrieved
2010-03-05
.
- ^
"APS Member History"
.
search.amphilsoc.org
. Retrieved
2023-11-17
.
- ^
"Henry Russell"
.
www.nasonline.org
. Retrieved
2023-11-17
.
- ^
"Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter R"
(PDF)
.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 2006-06-18
. Retrieved
14 April
2011
.
- ^
"Winners of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society"
.
Royal Astronomical Society
. Archived from
the original
on 25 May 2011
. Retrieved
19 February
2011
.
- ^
"Henry Draper Medal"
.
National Academy of Sciences
. Archived from
the original
on 26 January 2013
. Retrieved
19 February
2011
.
- ^
"Past Winners of the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal"
.
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
. Archived from
the original
on 21 July 2011
. Retrieved
19 February
2011
.
- ^
"Past Recipients of the Rumford Prize"
. American Academy of Arts and Sciences
. Retrieved
19 February
2011
.
- ^
"Grants, Prizes and Awards"
.
American Astronomical Society
. Archived from
the original
on 22 December 2010
. Retrieved
19 February
2011
.
External links
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