| 126th | Top astronomers |
| Henry Norris Russell | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 25, 1877 Oyster Bay, New York, USA |
| Died |
February 18, 1957 (aged 79) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | astronomy |
| Institutions | Princeton University |
| Alma mater | Princeton University |
| Doctoral advisor | Charles Augustus Young |
| Known for | Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, Russell–Saunders term symbol |
| Influences | George Darwin, Arthur Robert Hinks |
| Notable awards | Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1921), Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (1946) |
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 Russell–Saunders coupling which is also known as LS coupling.[1][2]
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Russell was born in 1877 in Oyster Bay, New York. He studied astronomy at Princeton University, obtaining his B.A. in 1897 and his doctorate in 1899, studying under Charles Augustus Young. From 1903 to 1905, he worked at the Cambridge Observatory with Arthur Robert Hinks as a research assistant of the Carnegie Institution and came under the strong influence of George Darwin.
He returned to Princeton to become an instructor in astronomy (1905-1908), assistant professor (1908-1911), professor (1911-1927) and research professor (1927-1947). He was also the director of the Princeton University Observatory from 1912 to 1947. He died in Princeton, New Jersey in 1957 at the age of 79.[3]
In November 1908 Russell married Lucy May Cole. They had four children. Their youngest daughter, Margaret, married the astronomer Frank K. Edmondson in the 1930s.
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.
   | Obs '''77''' (1957) 67 - 1957Obs....77...67M Page 67 |
| | PASP '''69''' (1957) 223 - 1957PASP...69..223S Page 223 |
| | MNRAS '''118''' (1958) 311 - MNRAS.118 Page 311 |
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