Henry Norris Russell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Henry Norris RussellHenry Norris Russell
Henry Norris Russell
Born October 25, 1877
Died February 18, 1957
Nationality American
Fields astronomy
Known for Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
Influences Ejnar Hertzsprung
Notable awards Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1921)

Henry Norris Russell (October 25, 1877 – February 18, 1957) was an American astronomer who, along with Ejnar Hertzsprung, developed the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (1910).

In 1923, working with Frederick Saunders, he developed RS coupling which is also known as LS coupling.

He co-wrote an influential two-volume textbook in 1927 with Raymond Smith Dugan and John Quincy Stewart: Astronomy: A Revision of Young’s Manual of Astronomy (Ginn & Co., Boston, 1926–27, 1938, 1945). This became the standard astronomy textbook for about two decades. There were two volumes: the first was The Solar System and the second was Astrophysics and Stellar Astronomy. The textbook popularized the idea that a star's properties (radius, surface temperature, luminosity, etc.) were largely determined by the star's mass and chemical composition, which became known as the Vogt-Russell theorem (including Hermann Vogt who independently discovered the result). Since a star's chemical composition gradually changes with age (usually in a non-homogeneous fashion), stellar evolution results.


Contents

Honors

Awards

Named after him