Publish at March 03 2020 Updated November 27 2025
The sun has long been a subject of mystery. What is that big yellow ball in the sky made of? If we now know, it's thanks in part to the groundbreaking work of one woman: Cecilia Payne. This Englishwoman had to leave her native country for the United States in order to study this gigantic star and practice the physical sciences.
At the time, scientists had already mastered the art of classifying stars by means of a light spectrum with absorption lines on which chemical elements could be perceived. So much so, they believed that stars were similar in composition to the Earth. However, Cecilia Payne revolutionized the whole process by discovering that the spectra she worked on showed more of the stars' temperature. By relying on heat, the intensity of the lines reveals the abundance of elements and specifies the structure. Our Sun, for example, is made up of far more hydrogen and helium than the rest. Alas, his theory was rejected... and taken up again 4 years later by a male colleague.
Running time: 11:18
Illustration : Pete Linforth from Pixabay
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