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Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
A British-American astronomer and astrophysicist who, in her 1925 doctoral thesis…
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28 worksheets · answer keys · full story · quiz · Ages 3-5 · CEFR A1
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Hello. My name is Cecilia Payne, and I have a secret to tell you about the stars. I was born a long time ago, on May 10th, 1900. When I was a little girl, I loved looking up at the sparkly night sky. I would look at all the twinkling lights and wonder, 'What are those pretty lights made of?' I just knew I had to find out the answer someday.
When I grew up, I went to a very big school in America called Harvard. There, I got to use a giant telescope to look closely at the light that came from the stars. It was so much fun. In the year 1925, I figured out their secret. I discovered that stars are mostly made of two super light, floaty gases called hydrogen and helium. At first, some people thought my idea was wrong. But soon, they learned that I was right.
My discovery helped everyone understand our amazing universe. I became a professor, which is a teacher at a big school, and in 1956, I was the first woman to lead the astronomy department at my school. I lived to be 79 years old, passing away in 1979. People remember me for solving a giant puzzle about the stars and for showing that girls can be incredible scientists.
Cecilia Payne
Hello. My name is Cecilia Payne, and I have a secret to tell you about the stars. I was born a long time ago, on May 10th, 1900. When I was a little girl, I loved looking up at the sparkly night sky. I would look at all the twinkling lights and wonder, 'What are those pretty lights made of?' I just knew I had to find out the answer someday.
When I grew up, I went to a very big school in America called Harvard. There, I got to use a giant telescope to look closely at the light that came from the stars. It was so much fun. In the year 1925, I figured out their secret. I discovered that stars are mostly made of two super light, floaty gases called hydrogen and helium. At first, some people thought my idea was wrong. But soon, they learned that I was right.
My discovery helped everyone understand our amazing universe. I became a professor, which is a teacher at a big school, and in 1956, I was the first woman to lead the astronomy department at my school. I lived to be 79 years old, passing away in 1979. People remember me for solving a giant puzzle about the stars and for showing that girls can be incredible scientists.
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A British-American astronomer and astrophysicist who, in her 1925 doctoral thesis, proposed that stars were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, a foundational discovery in astrophysics.
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What did Cecilia love looking at?
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