Abstract
THE Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society has been awarded to Prof. Ejnar Hertzsprung, of Leyden Observatory, for his determination of the distance of the Magellanic Clouds and other pioneering work in stellar astronomy. Prof. Hertzsprang's work is characterised by definiteness and originality; it includes researches in photometry; study of change of period in variable stars; investigations of the spacial distribution of Cepheids and other bodies; special studies of clusters; and researches in celestial spectroscopy. He was the first (1906) to emphasise the evidence for distinction between giant and dwarf stars. His work on the relation between colour, proper motion, and apparent magnitudes of stars has been a noteworthy contribution. His early application (1906) of the theory of radiation to considerations of stellar temperatures led him to be among the first to estimate the angular diameters of stars. He found the key by which Cepheid variables can be used to determine stellar distances. Miss Leavitt at Harvard had found a relationship between the apparent magnitude and period of Cepheid variables in the lesser Magellanic Cloud. Hertzsprung saw that this implied a relationship between actual luminosity and period. He then by means of solar motion deduced the parallax of thirteen bright Cepheids and thus their absolute luminosity, and the constant of the period luminosity relation. He derived the distance of the lesser Magellanic Cloud as 10,000 parsecs. This work was published in 1913, and the method has since been extensively employed by Shapley, Hubble, and others in the determination of the distances of remote clusters and nebulae.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
News and Views. Nature 123, 102–106 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/123102a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/123102a0