Conversation

It's only since Cecilia Payne's PhD thesis in 1925, that we know what the stars - and our Sun - are made of: mostly hydrogen.

Her thesis was described as ""the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy" and it extremely readable: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1925PhDT.........1P/abstract

Yet It took until 1956, 10 years before her retirement, for her to become full professor - because women were barred from becoming full professors at Harvard.

(Posted because she was born #OTD).

#astrodon #VicisArt #VicisAstro