Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (May 10, 1900 – December 7, 1979) was an English-American astronomer who in 1925 was first to show that the Sun is mainly composed of hydrogen, contradicting accepted wisdom at the time. Cecilia Helena Payne was one of three children born in Wendover, England to Helena (Pertz) and Edward John Payne, a London barrister, historian and accomplished musician. Cecilia Payne's father died when she was four years old, forcing her mother to raise the family on her own. She attended St Paul's Girls' School and then won a scholarship to read botany, physics, and chemistry at Newnham College, Cambridge University in 1919. Here, her interest in astronomy was sparked by Eddington's lecture on his eclipse expedition to Africa...