Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

Cecilia Helena Payne, born in Wendover in Buckinghamshire, England,{{cite journal |last=Gingerich |first=O. |year=1982 |journal=Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society |volume=23 |page=450 |title=Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin |bibcode=1982QJRAS..23..450G }} was one of three children born to Emma Leonora Helena (née Pertz), from an erudite Prussian family, and Edward John Payne, a London barrister. Her father was a historian and musician who had been an Oxford fellow.{{cite web |first1=J. J. |last1=O'Connor |first2=E. F. |last2=Robertson |url=http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Payne-Gaposchkin.html |title=Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin |website=MacTutor: Biographies |publisher=University of St. Andrews |access-date=September 5, 2019 |date=November 2017 }} Payne had two distinguished uncles, historian Georg Heinrich Pertz and the Swedenborgian writer James John Garth Wilkinson.{{cite book|last1=Payne |first1=H.

|last2=Mackworth-Young |first2=G.|editor=Arias, P.E.|year=1981|title=La scultura arcaica in marmo dell'Acropoli. La storiografia della scultura greca del VI sec. A. C.|page=79|publisher=L'Erma Di Bretschneider|isbn=978-88-7062-500-4|quote=Payne, Humfrey Gilbert Garth... figlio unico dello storico Edward John Payne e di sua moglie Emma Leonora Helena Pertz, nipote di Georg Heinrich Pertz, il curatore dei "Monumenta Germaniae Historica", e di James John Garth Wilkinson, il discepolo di Swedenborg.

}} When Cecilia was four, her father died, leaving her mother to raise the family on her own.

Payne began her formal education in Wendover at a private school run by Elizabeth Edwards.{{Cite web |last=Larkham |first=Jane |date=2020-07-28 |title=Cecilia Payne |url=https://wendovernews.co.uk/news/cecilia-payne/ |access-date=2024-11-23 |website=Wendover News |language=en-GB}} When Payne was twelve, her family moved to London to facilitate the education of her brother, Humfry; he later became an archaeologist. Payne initially attended St. Mary's College, Paddington, where study of mathematics or science was not available to her. In 1918, she transferred to St. Paul's Girls' School, where her music teacher, Gustav Holst, encouraged her to pursue a career in music. However, Payne decided to focus on science. The following year she won a scholarship covering her expenses at Newnham College, Cambridge University, where she studied physics and chemistry.

Her interest in astronomy began after she attended a lecture by Arthur Eddington, detailing his 1919 expedition to the island of Príncipe in the Gulf of Guinea off the west coast of Africa to observe and photograph the stars near a solar eclipse as a test of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.{{Cite journal|title = Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: astronomer extraordinaire|journal = Astronomy & Geophysics|date = February 1, 2002|issn = 1366-8781|pages = 1.27–1.29|volume = 43|issue = 1|doi = 10.1046/j.1468-4004.2002.43127.x|first = Patrick A.|last = Wayman|bibcode = 2002A&G....43a..27W |doi-access = }} She said of the lecture: "The result was a complete transformation of my world picture. [...] My world had been so shaken that I experienced something very like a nervous breakdown."{{r|autobiography|p=117}} Although she completed her studies, she did not receive an official degree because Cambridge did not grant degrees to women until 1948.{{Cite book|title = Women at Cambridge|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=2c_rEuADh6QC|publisher = Cambridge University Press|date = September 24, 1998|isbn = 978-0-521-64464-8|language = en|first = Rita McWilliams|last = Tullberg|page = 183}}

Payne realized that her only career option in the U.K. was to become a teacher, so she looked for grants that would enable her to move to the United States. An astronomy doctoral (PhD) candidate at Cambridge University, L J (Leslie John) Comrie, introduced her to Harlow Shapley, the director of the Harvard College Observatory, after a lecture in London at the British Astronomical Association.{{Cite web |last=Physics |first=American Institute of |date=2021-09-24 |title=Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin |url=https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4620 |access-date=2024-11-23 |website=www.aip.org |language=en}} A fellowship established to encourage women to study at the Harvard Observatory, enabled Payne to move to the United States to study at Harvard College in 1923. Adelaide Ames had been the first recipient of this fellowship in 1922, with Payne following as the second.

Lawrence H. Aller later described Payne as one of the "most capable go-getters" in Shapley's observatory.{{cite journal |last1=Aller |first1=Lawrence H. |title=An Astronomical Rescue |journal=Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics |date=September 1, 1995 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=1–18 |doi=10.1146/annurev.aa.33.090195.000245 |bibcode=1995ARA&A..33....1A |s2cid=120600652 |issn=0066-4146|doi-access=free }} She then studied related courses at Harvard via the program for women and Shapley persuaded Payne to write a doctoral dissertation on a topic in astronomy.

File:Milky Way Night Sky Black Rock Desert Nevada.jpg match Payne-Gaposchkin's 1925 calculations]]

In 1925, Payne became the first person to earn a doctoral degree (PhD) in astronomy from Radcliffe College of Harvard University.{{cite book |last1=Sobel |first1=Dava |author-link= Dava Sobel |year= 2016 |title=The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars |publisher=Viking |pages=203–213 |isbn=978-0-670-01695-2}} Her thesis was entitled, Stellar Atmospheres; A Contribution to the Observational Study of High Temperature in the Reversing Layers of Stars.{{cite thesis |last=Payne |first=Cecilia H. |title=Stellar Atmospheres; a Contribution to the Observational Study of High Temperature in the Reversing Layers of Stars |url=https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1925PhDT.........1P/0000001,006.html |degree=PhD |institution=Radcliffe College |year=1925 |bibcode=1925PhDT.........1P |oclc=1443459}}

While analyzing glass plates at the Harvard College Observatory, Payne made a groundbreaking discovery by accurately relating the spectral classes of stars to their measured temperatures using Indian physicist Meghnad Saha's ionization theory. She demonstrated that the great variation in stellar absorption lines was due to differing amounts of ionization at different temperatures, not to varying amounts of elements. Payne found that silicon, carbon, and several common metals seen in the Sun's spectrum were present in about the same relative amounts as on Earth, which aligned with the prevailing belief that stars had a similar elemental composition as on Earth, however, she found that helium, and particularly hydrogen, were vastly more abundant in stars, with hydrogen being about a million times more prevalent. This discovery was the basis of her conclusion that hydrogen was the overwhelming constituent of stars, making it the most abundant element in the Universe.

During the review process of Payne's dissertation, Henry Norris Russell, a pre-eminent astronomer of the day who adhered to the theories of American physicist Henry Rowland, urged her not to assert that the composition of the Sun was predominantly hydrogen, however, because it contradicted the scientific consensus of the time that the elemental composition of the Sun and the Earth were similar.{{cite news |author1=Steven Soter and Neil deGrasse Tyson |title=Cecilia Payne and the Composition of the Stars |work=American Museum of Natural History |url=https://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections/cosmic-horizons-book/cecilia-payne-profile |publisher=American Museum of Natural History |date=2000}} Russell, in a 1914 article, had argued that:

The agreement of the solar and terrestrial lists is such as to confirm very strongly Rowland's opinion that, if the Earth's crust should be raised to the temperature of the Sun's atmosphere, it would give a very similar absorption spectrum. The spectra of the Sun and other stars were similar, so it appeared that the relative abundance of elements in the universe was like that in Earth's crust.{{cite journal|last=Russell|first=Henry|date=May 29, 1914|title=The Solar Spectrum and the Earth's Crust|journal=Science|volume= 39|issue=1013|pages=791–794|jstor=1638885|bibcode=1914Sci....39..791R |doi=10.1126/science.39.1013.791 |pmid=17812658}}

Consequently, Russell described her scientific conclusion as "spurious".{{r|thesis|p=186}}{{Cite book|title=We Need to Talk About Kelvin|last=Chown|first=Marcus |publisher=Faber and Faber|year=2009|isbn=978-0-571-24402-7 |location=London|pages=99–100}} Although she included all calculations and results, Payne accommodated the criticism of her reviewer by including a statement in her thesis that her results were "almost certainly not real".

Four years later, however, Russell realized that Payne had been correct when he derived the same results by different means, effectively demonstrating that hydrogen and helium were the most abundant elements in the Milky Way, just as Payne had concluded in her thesis. Sharing his results professionally in 1929, Russell briefly acknowledged Payne's earlier work and discovery, including the mention that "[t]he most important previous determination of the abundance of the elements by astrophysical means is that by Miss Payne [...]",{{cite journal |last=Russell |first=Henry Norris |date=July 1929 |title=On the Composition of the Sun's Atmosphere |url=https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1929ApJ....70...11R |journal=Astrophysical Journal |volume=70 |page=64 |bibcode=1929ApJ....70...11R |doi=10.1086/143197 |access-date=October 15, 2022 |via=The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}} yet Russell was generally credited for the conclusions Payne had reached four years prior.{{Cite web |date=2015-03-07 |title=Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin {{!}} Women in science |url=http://www.epigenesys.eu/en/science-and-you/women-in-science/808-cecilia-payne-gaposchkin |access-date=2024-11-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150307184237/http://www.epigenesys.eu/en/science-and-you/women-in-science/808-cecilia-payne-gaposchkin |archive-date=March 7, 2015 }}

Nearly 40 years after Payne's thesis was published, professional recognition of her discovery was given to her by astronomer Otto Struve when he described her work as "the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy".{{cite web|url=https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201501/physicshistory.cfm |title=January 1, 1925: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and the Day the Universe Changed|website=American Physical Society|date=January 2015}} Today's accepted ratios for hydrogen and helium in the Milky Way Galaxy are ~74% hydrogen and ~24% helium, confirming the results of Payne-Gaposchkin's calculations from 1925.{{Cite web |title=This Month in Physics History |url=http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201501/physicshistory.cfm |access-date=September 8, 2023 |website=www.aps.org |language=en}}

Her work also resulted in several published books, including The Stars of High Luminosity (1930), Variable Stars (1938), and Variable Stars and Galactic Structure (1954).

File:Cecilia Helena Payne Gaposchkin (1900-1979).jpg

After earning her doctorate in 1925, Payne remained at Harvard for the entirety of her academic career. Initially, women were barred from becoming professors at Harvard, so she spent years doing less prestigious, low-paid research. Her early work focused on stars of high luminosity and seeking to understand the structure of the Milky Way.

Later, she surveyed all stars brighter than the tenth magnitude. She then studied variable stars, making more than 1,250,000 observations with her assistants. This work later was extended to the Magellanic Clouds, adding a further 2,000,000 observations of variable stars. These data were used to determine the paths of stellar evolution. She published her conclusions in her second book, The Stars of High Luminosity (1930).{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cecilia-Payne-Gaposchkin|title=Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin|last=Gregersen|first=Erik|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=May 6, 2023 }}

On a tour through Europe in 1933, Payne met Russian-born astrophysicist {{ill|Sergei Illarionovich Gaposchkin|ru|Гапошкин, Сергей Илларионович}} in Germany. She helped him obtain a visa to the United States, where they married in March 1934. Her observations and analysis of variable stars, carried out with Sergei Gaposchkin, laid the basis for all subsequent work on such objects.

{{cite journal

|last = Turner

|first = J.

|date = March 16, 2001

|title = Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin

|url = http://cwp.library.ucla.edu/Phase2/Payne-Gaposchkin,_Cecilia_Helena@861234567.html

|journal = Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics

|access-date = October 10, 2012

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121012003950/http://cwp.library.ucla.edu/Phase2/Payne-Gaposchkin,_Cecilia_Helena@861234567.html

|archive-date = October 12, 2012

}}

Harlow Shapley (the Director of the Harvard College Observatory) had made efforts to improve her position, and in 1938 she was given the title of "Astronomer". In order to get approval for her title, Shapley had assured the university that giving Payne-Gaposchkin this position would not make her equivalent to a professor. Payne later requested that her title be changed to "Phillips Astronomer", an endowed position that would make her an "officer of the university" and Shapley pushed privately for the position to be converted into an explicit professorship as the "Phillips Professor of Astronomy".{{r|autobiography|p=225}}{{cite book|title=American Women of Science Since 1900|volume= 1|first=Tiffany K.|last= Wayne|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year= 2011|isbn= 978-1-59884-158-9|page=749}}{{cite book|title=The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars|first=Dava|last=Sobel |publisher=Penguin Publishing Group|year= 2017|isbn=978-0-14-311134-4|pages=245, 258}}

Payne-Gaposchkin was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1943.

{{cite web

|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterP.pdf

|title=Members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences: 1780–2012; Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia Helena

|page=416

|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences

|access-date=July 29, 2014

}}

Nonetheless, the courses she taught were not recorded as available in the Harvard University catalogue until 1945.

When Donald Menzel became director of the Harvard College Observatory in 1954, he tried to improve her appointment, and in 1956 she became the first woman to be promoted to full professor from within the faculty at Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She was appointed the Phillips Professor of Astronomy in 1958. Later, with her appointment to the Chair of the Department of Astronomy, she also became the first woman to head a department at Harvard.^[14]

Her students included Joseph Ashbrook, Frank Drake, Harlan Smith, and Paul W. Hodge, all of whom made important contributions to astronomy.

{{cite book

|last=Hockey |first=T.

|year=2007

|title=Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t-BF1CHkc50C

|pages=876–878

|publisher=Springer

|isbn=978-0-387-30400-7

}} She also supervised Helen Sawyer Hogg, Frank Kameny

{{cite web

|title=Astronomy Alumni

|url=http://astronomy.fas.harvard.edu/astronomy-alumni

|publisher=Harvard University, Department of Astronomy

|access-date=August 7, 2014

}} and Owen Gingerich.{{cite web | title=Owen Gingerich | website=American Institute of Physics | date=February 6, 2015 | url=https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/31886 | access-date=March 3, 2023}}

Payne-Gaposchkin retired from active teaching in 1966 and subsequently, was appointed Professor Emerita of Harvard. She continued her research as a member of staff at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, as well as editing the journals and books published by Harvard Observatory for ten years.{{Cite web|url=http://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/famous-scientists/astronomers/cecilia-helena-payne-gaposchkin-info.htm|title=Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin|date=April 23, 2009|website=HowStuffWorks|access-date=September 10, 2016}} She edited and published the lectures of Walter Baade that were entitled, Evolution of Stars and Galaxies (1963).{{cite journal |last1=Irwin |first1=John B. |title=Astronomy: Evolution of Stars and Galaxies. Walter Baade. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Ed. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1963. xiii + 321 pp. Illus. $6.75. |journal=Science |date=May 10, 1963 |volume=140 |issue=3567 |page=658 |doi=10.1126/science.140.3567.658.a |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.140.3567.658.a |access-date=January 20, 2022 |language=EN}}

Payne-Gaposchkin's career marked a turning point at Harvard College Observatory. Under the direction of Harlow Shapley and Dr. E. J. Sheridan (whom Payne-Gaposchkin described as a mentor,

{{cite book

|last=Payne-Gaposchkin |first=C.

|chapter=The dyer's hand: an autobiography

|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ceciliapaynegapo00payn/page/69 69–238]

|editor-last=Haramundanis | editor-first=Katherine

|title=Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: an autobiography and other recollections

|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/ceciliapaynegapo00payn |chapter-url-access=registration |edition=2

|year=1984

|publisher=Cambridge University Press

|isbn=978-0-521-25752-7

}})

the observatory already had offered more opportunities in astronomy to women than did other institutions. This was evident in the achievements accomplished earlier in the century by Williamina Fleming, Antonia Maury, Annie Jump Cannon, and Henrietta Swan Leavitt. However, with Payne's PhD, women entered the mainstream.{{cite book |last1=Mack |first1=Pamela E. |editor1-last=Kass-Simon |editor1-first=Gabriele |editor2-last=Farnes |editor2-first=Patricia |title=Women of science: righting the record |date=1990 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |pages=105–107 |ref=mack |chapter=Straying from Their Orbits: Women in Astronomy in America}}

The trail she blazed into the largely male-dominated scientific community was an inspiration to many. For example, she became a role model for astrophysicist Joan Feynman. Feynman's mother and grandmother had dissuaded her from pursuing science, since they believed women were not physically capable of understanding scientific concepts.

{{cite book

|last1=Ottaviani |first1=J.

|last2=Myrick |first2=L.

|year=2011

|title=Feynman

|publisher=First Second

|isbn=978-1-59643-259-8

}}

{{cite book

|last1=Feynman |first1=R. P.

|last2=Sykes |first2=C.

|title=No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman

|year=1995

|publisher=W. W. Norton & Co

|edition=Reprint

|isbn=978-0-393-31393-2

}}

Feynman was inspired by Payne-Gaposchkin when she came across her work in an astronomy textbook. Seeing Payne-Gaposchkin's published research convinced Feynman that she could, in fact, follow her scientific passions.

{{cite web

|last=Hirshberg |first=C.

|date=April 18, 2002

|title=My Mother, the Scientist

|url=http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2002-04/my-mother-scientist?single-page-view=true

|work=Popular Science

|access-date=August 8, 2014

}}

While accepting the Henry Norris Russell Prize from the American Astronomical Society, Payne spoke of her lifelong passion for research: "The reward of the young scientist is the emotional thrill of being the first person in the history of the world to see something or understand something. Nothing can compare with that experience [...] The reward of the old scientist is the sense of having seen a vague sketch grow into a masterly landscape."

{{cite journal

|last=Payne-Gaposchkin |first=C.

|year=1977

|title=Henry Norris Russell Prize Lecture of the American Astronomical Society – Fifty years of novae

|journal=The Astronomical Journal

|volume=82 |issue=9 |page=665

|bibcode=1977AJ.....82..665P

|doi=10.1086/112105

}}

File:Cecilia Helena Payne Gaposchkin (1900-1979) (2).jpg

In her autobiography, Payne said that while in school she created an experiment on the efficacy of prayer by dividing her exams in two groups, praying for success only on one, the other one being a scientific control group. She achieved the higher marks in the latter group.{{r|autobiography|p=97}} Later on, she became an agnostic.

{{cite book

|last=Laidler |first=K. J. |author-link= Keith J. Laidler

|year=2002

|title=Energy and the Unexpected

|page=109

|publisher=Oxford University Press

|isbn=978-0-19-852516-5

|quote=Since she actually got better marks in the prayerless group she became, and remained, a devout agnostic.

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=MwTNCEoGsfYC&pg=109 |access-date= July 23, 2019

}}

In 1931, Payne became a United States citizen, so she held joint citizenship of both the UK and the US. On a tour through Europe in 1933, she met Russian-born astrophysicist {{ill|Sergei Illarionovich Gaposchkin|ru|Гапошкин, Сергей Илларионович}} in Germany. She helped him get a visa to the United States. They married in March 1934, settling in the historic town of Lexington, Massachusetts, a short commute from Harvard. Payne added her husband's name to her own, and the Payne-Gaposchkins had three children: Edward, Katherine, and Peter. Payne's daughter remembers her as "an inspired seamstress, an inventive knitter, and a voracious reader". Payne and her family were members of the First Unitarian Church in Lexington, where Cecilia taught Sunday school.

She was also active with the Quakers.

{{cite book

|editor-last1=Ogilvie

|editor-first1=M.

|editor-last2=Harvey

|editor-first2=J.

|editor-link=Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie

|editor2-link=Joy Harvey

|year=2000

|title=The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science

|publisher=Routledge

|isbn=978-0-415-92038-4

|url=https://archive.org/details/biographicaldict00ogil_0

}}

During the World War II years, work at the observatory was virtually stopped, but Payne and her husband continued, often taking their children with them to work.

They lived in Lexington, while on a small farm they had near Townsend, a neighbour helped them raise pigs and poultry and to deliver meat and eggs to local markets.{{cite book

|last=Sobel |first=Dava |author-link= Dava Sobel

|year=2016

|title=The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars

|page=249

|publisher=Viking

|isbn=978-0-67-001695-2

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=wcq-CwAAQBAJ |access-date= March 31, 2025}}

She died at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on December 7, 1979, aged 79. Shortly before her death, Payne had her autobiography privately printed as, The Dyer's Hand. It was reprinted later as, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and Other Recollections.

Payne's younger brother, archaeologist Humfry Payne (1902–1936), who married author and film critic Dilys Powell, became director of the British School of Archaeology at Athens, where he died in 1936, aged 34.{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Humfry-Gilbert-Garth-Payne|title=Humfry Payne {{!}} British archaeologist|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=September 10, 2016}} Payne's granddaughter, Cecilia Gaposchkin, is a professor of late medieval cultural history and French history at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire.

{{cite web

|last=Gingerich |first=O.

|title=Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: Astronomer and Astrophysicist

|url=http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/payne2.html

|work=Notable American Unitarians

|publisher=Harvard Square Library

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131217042405/http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/payne2.html

|archive-date=December 17, 2013

|quote=A September 1956 article in The Christian Register published by the American Unitarian Association, announced her appointment and described her as a member of the denomination's First Parish and Church in Lexington, Massachusetts.

}}{{cite web

|last=Vetter |first=H. F.

|date=2003

|title=Cecelia Payne-Gaposchkin: Astronomer and pioneer

|url=http://www.uuworld.org/2003/01/lookingback.html

|work=UU World

}}{{cite web |title=Cecilia Gaposchkin, Professor of History |url=https://faculty-directory.dartmouth.edu/cecilia-gaposchkin |website=Dartmouth College Department of History |date=April 2, 2013 |publisher=Trustees of Dartmouth College |access-date=December 7, 2019}}

• Elected member of Royal Astronomical Society while still a student at Cambridge (1923)
• Listed among 250 scientists added to the fourth edition of American Men of Science (1927){{cite journal | title = On the stature of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin | author = Scott Calvin | journal = Physics Today | volume = 73 | issue = 11 | doi = 10.1063/PT.3.4603 | page = 10 | year = 2020| bibcode = 2020PhT....73k..10C | s2cid = 228954755 | doi-access = free }}
• First recipient of the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy (1934)
• Member of the American Philosophical Society (1936)
• Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1943)
• Received the Award of Merit from Radcliffe College (1952)
• Awarded the Rittenhouse Medal from the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society at the Franklin Institute (1961){{cite web|url=http://www.rittenhouseastronomicalsociety.org/Pages/rasmedalrecipients.htm|title=Rittenhouse Medal Awards|date=2010|publisher=Rittenhouse Astronomical Society|access-date=October 10, 2012|archive-date=September 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923050715/http://www.rittenhouseastronomicalsociety.org/Pages/rasmedalrecipients.htm}}
• Named Professor Emerita of Harvard University (1967)
• Namesake of Asteroid 2039 Payne-Gaposchkin, discovered in 1974 {{Cite web|url=http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?utf8=%25E2%259C%2593&object_id=2039|title=(2039) Payne-Gaposchkin = 1974 CA|website=IAU Minor Planet Center|access-date=September 10, 2016}}
• Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the American Astronomical Society (1976)
• Institute of Physics Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Medal and Prize named in her honor (2008){{cite web |url=http://www.iop.org/about/awards/subject/payne_gaposchkin-/page_72438.html |title=Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Medal and Prize |publisher=Institute of Physics |access-date=January 22, 2020 |archive-date=October 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191022210729/https://www.iop.org/about/awards/subject/payne_gaposchkin-/page_72438.html }}
• The American Physical Society's Doctoral Dissertation Award in Astrophysics was renamed the Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Doctoral Dissertation Award in Astrophysics (2018){{cite web |title=Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Doctoral Dissertation Award in Astrophysics: Foundation supports re-named astrophysics dissertation honor. |url=https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/updates/cecilia.cfm |publisher=American Physical Society |access-date=December 15, 2018}}
• Namesake of one of the ASAS-SN telescopes deployed in South Africa
• Honorary Degrees from Rutgers University, Wilson College, Smith College, Western College, Colby College, and the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania
• Namesake of the Payne-Gaposchkin Patera (volcano) on Venus

[https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/4623 Payne-Gaposchkin Patera], Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN)

Published academic books:

• The Stars of High Luminosity (1930){{cite book |last=Payne |first=Cecilia H. |date=1930 |title=The Stars of High Luminosity |series=Harvard Observatory monographs; no. 3|location=New York; London |publisher=published for the Harvard Observatory by McGraw Hill |lccn=30-34245 |oclc=3196276}}
• Variable Stars (1938){{cite book |last1=Payne-Gaposchkin |first1=Cecilia | last2=Gaposchkin |first2=Sergei |date=1938 |title=Variable Stars |series=Harvard Observatory monographs; no. 5|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=Harvard Observatory |lccn=39-18855|oclc=831947}}
• Variable Stars and Galactic Structure (1954){{cite book |last=Payne-Gaposchkin |first=Cecilia |date=1954 |title=Variable Stars & Galactic Structure |location=London |publisher=University of London; Athlone Press |lccn=55-37995 |oclc=530546}}
• Introduction to Astronomy (1954){{cite book |last=Payne-Gaposchkin |first=Cecilia |date=1954 |title=Introduction to Astronomy |series=Prentice-Hall physics series |location=New York |publisher=Prentice-Hall |bibcode=1954inas.book.....G |lccn=54-10155 |oclc=416552}}
• The Galactic Novae (1957){{cite book |last=Payne-Gaposchkin |first=Cecilia |date=1957 |title=The Galactic Novae |series=Series in astrophysics |location=Amsterdam; New York |publisher=North-Holland; Interscience Publishers |lccn=57-3656 |oclc=838013}}

Significant research papers:

• {{Citation

|last=Payne Gaposchkin |first=C. |author-mask=2

|year=1936

|title=On the Physical Condition of the Supernovae

|volume=22 |issue=6 |pages=332–6

|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

|bibcode=1936PNAS...22..332P

|doi=10.1073/pnas.22.6.332

|jstor=86556

|pmid=16588077

|pmc=1076773

|ref=none

|doi-access=free }}

• {{Citation

|last1=Whipple |first1=F. L.

|last2=Payne Gaposchkin |first2=C. |author-mask2=2

|year=1936

|title=On the Bright Line Spectrum of Nova Herculis

|volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=195–200

|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

|bibcode=1936PNAS...22..195W

|doi=10.1073/pnas.22.4.195

|jstor=86718

|pmc=1076741

|pmid=16577695

|ref=none

|doi-access=free

}}

• {{Citation

|last=Payne Gaposchkin |first=C. |author-mask=2

|year=1941

|title=Obituary – Annie Jump Cannon

|journal=Science

|volume=93 |issue=2419 |pages=443–444

|bibcode=1941Sci....93..443P

|doi=10.1126/science.93.2419.443

|pmid=17820707

|s2cid=42913492 |ref=none

}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Payne-Gaposchkin |first1=Cecilia |title=Novae and Novalike Stars |journal=Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics |date=September 1, 1963 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=145–148 |doi=10.1146/annurev.aa.01.090163.001045 |bibcode=1963ARA&A...1..145P |issn=0066-4146}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Payne-Gaposchkin |first1=Cecilia |title=The Development of our Knowledge of Variable Stars |journal=Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics |date=September 1, 1978 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=1–13 |doi=10.1146/annurev.aa.16.090178.000245 |bibcode=1978ARA&A..16....1P |issn=0066-4146}}

• {{annotated link|Harvard Computers}}
• {{annotated link|Sisters of the Sun}}
• {{annotated link|Timeline of women in science}}

{{reflist}}

• Chapman, Emma (December 20, 2020). "[https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/the-life-changing-and-long-lasting-influence-of-cecilia-payne-gaposchkin/ The life-changing and long-lasting influence of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin]" BBC Science Focus Magazine
• {{cite web

|last=Devorkin |first=D.

|date=October 20, 2008

|url=https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/31784

|title=Interview with Dr. Kathy Haramundanis

|publisher=American Institute of Physics

}}

• {{cite web|last=Gingerich|first=O.|date=March 5, 1968|url=https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4620|title=Interview with Dr. Cecilia Gaposchkin|publisher=American Institute of Physics}}
• {{MacTutor|id=Payne-Gaposchkin}}
• {{cite book

|last= Moore |first= Donovan |year=2020

|title= What Stars Are Made Of: The Life of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

|location= Cambridge, MA |publisher= Harvard University Press

|isbn= 978-0-674-23737-7

}}

• {{cite book

|last1=Payne-Gaposchkin

|first1=C.

|last2=Haramundanis

|first2=K.

|year=1984

|title=Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and Other Recollections

|publisher=Cambridge University Press

|isbn=978-0-521-25752-7

|url=https://archive.org/details/ceciliapaynegapo00payn

}}

• {{cite book|last=Rubin|first=V.|year=2006|chapter=Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin|editor-last1=Byers|editor-first1=N.|editor-last2=Williams|editor-first2=G.

|title=Out of the Shadows: Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-82197-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/outofshadowscont0000unse}}

• Bretislav Friedrich. [https://www.fhi.mpg.de/1019098/cecilia_payne_gaposchkin.pdf "Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1979)."]
• {{cite journal

|last = Turner

|first = J.

|date = March 16, 2001

|title = Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin

|url = http://cwp.library.ucla.edu/Phase2/Payne-Gaposchkin,_Cecilia_Helena@861234567.html

|journal = Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121012003950/http://cwp.library.ucla.edu/Phase2/Payne-Gaposchkin,_Cecilia_Helena@861234567.html

|archive-date = October 12, 2012

}}

;Obituaries

• {{cite journal

|last=Gingerich |first=O.

|year=1982

|title=Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

|journal=Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society

|volume=23 |page=450

|bibcode=1982QJRAS..23..450G

}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Öpik |first=E.

|year=1979

|title=Obituary – Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

|journal=Irish Astronomical Journal

|volume=14 |page=69

|bibcode=1979IrAJ...14R..69O

}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Smith |first=E. V. P.|author-link=Elske Smith

|year=1980

|title=Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

|journal=Physics Today

|volume=33 |issue=6 |pages=64–65

|bibcode=1980PhT....33f..64S

|doi=10.1063/1.2914128

|doi-access=free

}}

• {{cite web

|last=Vetter |first=H. F.

|date=2003

|title=Cecelia Payne-Gaposchkin: Astronomer and pioneer

|url=http://www.uuworld.org/2003/01/lookingback.html

|work=UU World

}}

• {{cite book

|last=West |first=D.

|date=2015

|title=The Astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin – A Short Biography

|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

|isbn=978-1-5186-0375-4

}}

{{Commons category}}

• [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4620 Oral history interview transcript with Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin on 5 March 1968, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives] – interview conducted by Owen Gingerich at Harvard College Observatory
• {{MathGenealogy |id=137517}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071101054712/http://www.carleton.edu/departments/PHAS/Astro/pages/marga_michele/Cecilia_Payne.html Biography] from Goodsell Observatory
• [https://astrosociety.org/education-outreach/resource-guides/women-in-astronomy-an-introductory-resource-guide.html/ Bibliography] from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
• [https://www.lemonde.fr/sciences/video/2019/08/03/de-quoi-sont-faites-les-etoiles_5496286_1650684.html Chercheuses d'étoiles], an episode about Cecilia Payne as part of Le Monde's series on women in science (in French)
• {{cite web |last1=Evans |first1=Lucy |last2=Hafner |first2=Katie |title=This Astronomer Discovered What the Stars Were Made Of, and Few Believed Her Discovery |series=The Lost Women of Science Initiative |website=Scientific American |date=June 22, 2023 |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/this-astronomer-discovered-what-the-stars-were-made-of-and-few-believed-her-discovery/ |ref=none |access-date=June 22, 2023}}
• {{Gutenberg author |id=57304 |name=Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin}}

{{Portal bar|Biography|Physics|Astronomy|Stars|Outer space|Solar System|Science}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia}}

Category:1900 births

Category:1979 deaths

Category:20th-century British astronomers

Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge

Category:American astrophysicists

Category:American women astronomers

Category:British astrophysicists

Category:People educated at St Paul's Girls' School

Category:Radcliffe College alumni

Category:Harvard University faculty

Category:American agnostics

Category:American Unitarians

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:Recipients of the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy

Category:People from Wendover

Category:People from Lexington, Massachusetts

Category:British emigrants to the United States

Category:20th-century British women scientists

Category:20th-century American scientists

Category:20th-century American women scientists

Category:British people of Prussian descent

Category:Harvard College Observatory people

Category:American women academics

Category:American women physicists

Category:American women astrophysicists

Category:Women planetary scientists

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society

Category:British women astrophysicists