1900 - 1979
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (born Cecilia Helena Payne; (1900-05-10)May 10, 1900 – (1979-12-07)December 7, 1979) was a British-born American astronomer and astrophysicist who proposed in her 1925 doctoral thesis that stars were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Her groundbreaking conclusion was initially rejected because it contradicted the scientific wisdom of the time, which held that there were no significant elemental differences between the Sun and Earth. Independent observations eventually proved that she was correct. Read more on Wikipedia
Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin has received more than 1,324,558 page views. Her biography is available in 46 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 43 in 2019). Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin is the 108th most popular astronomer (down from 90th in 2019), the 1,064th most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 870th in 2019) and the 15th most popular British Astronomer.
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin is most famous for being the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University. Her dissertation was on the composition of the stars, and she was able to show that they were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium.
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Among astronomers, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ranks 108 out of 531. Before her are Mary Somerville, Reinhard Genzel, Frank Drake, Edward Charles Pickering, George Biddell Airy, and Ernst Öpik. After her are Carolyn S. Shoemaker, Heinrich Schwabe, Arthur Auwers, Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf, E. M. Antoniadi, and Édouard Stephan.
1780 - 1872
HPI: 59.05
Rank: 102
1952 - Present
HPI: 59.00
Rank: 103
1930 - 2022
HPI: 58.93
Rank: 104
1846 - 1919
HPI: 58.91
Rank: 105
1801 - 1892
HPI: 58.72
Rank: 106
1893 - 1985
HPI: 58.71
Rank: 107
1900 - 1979
HPI: 58.59
Rank: 108
1929 - 2021
HPI: 58.55
Rank: 109
1789 - 1875
HPI: 58.46
Rank: 110
1838 - 1915
HPI: 58.37
Rank: 111
1526 - 1580
HPI: 58.36
Rank: 112
1870 - 1944
HPI: 58.31
Rank: 113
1837 - 1923
HPI: 58.20
Rank: 114
Among people born in 1900, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ranks 68. Before her are Mária Telkes, Franz Walter Stahlecker, Ignazio Silone, Agnes Moorehead, Pridi Banomyong, and Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. After her are Filipp Golikov, Carmen Polo, 1st Lady of Meirás, Jiro Miyake, Alfred Newman, Joseph Needham, and Wilhelm Rediess. Among people deceased in 1979, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ranks 53. Before her are Mamie Eisenhower, Conrad Hilton, Teruo Nakamura, Konstantin Simonov, Dhyan Chand, and Dimitri Tiomkin. After her are Charles Mingus, Yuen Siu-tien, Alfredo Ottaviani, Rudi Dutschke, Charles W. Morris, and Ali Hassan Salameh.
1900 - 1995
HPI: 59.29
Rank: 62
1900 - 1942
HPI: 59.04
Rank: 63
1900 - 1978
HPI: 58.83
Rank: 64
1900 - 1974
HPI: 58.79
Rank: 65
1900 - 1983
HPI: 58.66
Rank: 66
1900 - 1974
HPI: 58.65
Rank: 67
1900 - 1979
HPI: 58.59
Rank: 68
1900 - 1980
HPI: 58.59
Rank: 69
1900 - 1988
HPI: 58.59
Rank: 70
1900 - 1984
HPI: 58.52
Rank: 71
1900 - 1970
HPI: 58.46
Rank: 72
1900 - 1995
HPI: 58.12
Rank: 73
1900 - 1945
HPI: 58.07
Rank: 74
1896 - 1979
HPI: 59.60
Rank: 47
1887 - 1979
HPI: 59.34
Rank: 48
1919 - 1979
HPI: 59.02
Rank: 49
1915 - 1979
HPI: 58.69
Rank: 50
1905 - 1979
HPI: 58.66
Rank: 51
1894 - 1979
HPI: 58.63
Rank: 52
1900 - 1979
HPI: 58.59
Rank: 53
1922 - 1979
HPI: 58.59
Rank: 54
1912 - 1979
HPI: 58.57
Rank: 55
1890 - 1979
HPI: 58.27
Rank: 56
1940 - 1979
HPI: 57.99
Rank: 57
1903 - 1979
HPI: 57.87
Rank: 58
1940 - 1979
HPI: 57.82
Rank: 59
Among people born in United Kingdom, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ranks 1,064 out of 7,765. Before her are James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie (1812), John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718), Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia (1945), Frank Oz (1944), Geoffrey Wilkinson (1921), and Roy Hodgson (1947). After her are Ross Brawn (1954), Michael Nyman (1944), Alice Bailey (1880), Henry Royce (1863), PJ Harvey (1969), and A. J. Ayer (1910).
1812 - 1860
HPI: 58.63
Rank: 1,058
1718 - 1792
HPI: 58.62
Rank: 1,059
1945 - Present
HPI: 58.62
Rank: 1,060
1944 - Present
HPI: 58.62
Rank: 1,061
1921 - 1996
HPI: 58.61
Rank: 1,062
1947 - Present
HPI: 58.61
Rank: 1,063
1900 - 1979
HPI: 58.59
Rank: 1,064
1954 - Present
HPI: 58.59
Rank: 1,065
1944 - Present
HPI: 58.58
Rank: 1,066
1880 - 1949
HPI: 58.57
Rank: 1,067
1863 - 1933
HPI: 58.57
Rank: 1,068
1969 - Present
HPI: 58.56
Rank: 1,069
1910 - 1989
HPI: 58.55
Rank: 1,070
Among astronomers born in United Kingdom, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ranks 15. Before her are William Lassell (1799), Stephen Gray (1666), Antony Hewish (1924), William Huggins (1824), Mary Somerville (1780), and George Biddell Airy (1801). After her are Jeremiah Horrocks (1618), Adelard of Bath (1075), William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse (1800), John Russell Hind (1823), Williamina Fleming (1857), and N. R. Pogson (1829).
1799 - 1880
HPI: 61.29
Rank: 9
1666 - 1736
HPI: 60.96
Rank: 10
1924 - 2021
HPI: 60.00
Rank: 11
1824 - 1910
HPI: 59.78
Rank: 12
1780 - 1872
HPI: 59.05
Rank: 13
1801 - 1892
HPI: 58.72
Rank: 14
1900 - 1979
HPI: 58.59
Rank: 15
1618 - 1641
HPI: 58.09
Rank: 16
1075 - 1160
HPI: 58.07
Rank: 17
1800 - 1867
HPI: 57.71
Rank: 18
1823 - 1895
HPI: 57.44
Rank: 19
1857 - 1911
HPI: 56.91
Rank: 20
1829 - 1891
HPI: 55.56
Rank: 21