Henry Norris Russell Essay 3

     Henry Norris Russell was born on October 25, 1877, in Oyster Bay, New York. He received the majority of his education at Princeton. He graduated in 1897 with the highest standing of a Princeton student ever. During his time he was considered the best American astronomer, and his discoveries and awards exemplified that thought.
      "A man of overflowing energy, never sparing himself in his own work or in assisting the researches of others, he was the most eminent and versatile theoretical astrophysicist in the United States if not in the world." was used to describe Russell on an obituary by Colonel Stratton.
     Some of his most amazing contributions were the color magnitude diagram, eclipsing binary theory and calculations, spectrum analysis, discovering the mass of stars, and the popularization of astronomy at a high level. But, Russell also made great contributions to solar and stellar composition and constitution, the origin of the planets and comets, characteristics of planetary atmospheres, the contacts of religion of science, and consulting on all astronomical and spectroscopic problems. The man wrote over 200 technical papers, and his contributions were all around simply amazing to everything studied nowadays. Colonel Stratton was right in saying that Russell was a man of unequaled versatility.
     Working apart from Ejnar Hertzsprung, Russell demonstrated the relationship between types of stars and their absolute magnitude. He then collaborated with Hertzsprung to create the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagrams. This H-R diagram mainly traced the placing of the main sequence stars, giants and dwarfs.

     Working with Frederick Saunders, he developed Russell-Saunders coupling which is also known as LS coupling. This is not nearly astronomical, but shows the true range of his studies, and the powers of ten. Russell was an great man and astronomer and without his contributions the field of astronomy wouldn't be anywhere on the map.

Henry Norris Russel Sources

"Henry N. Russell Definition of Henry N. Russell in the Free Online Encyclopedia." The Free Encyclopedia. Farlex. Web. 22 Feb. 2011. <http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Henry N. Russell>.

"Henry N Russell, Henry N Russell Science Definition | Science Dictionary." Dictionary.com. Ask.com. Web. 22 Feb. 2011. <http://dictionary.reference.com/science/henry n russell>.

Shapley, Harlow. "Henry Norris Russel." National Academy of Sciences (1958). Print.

APOD 3.5

X-Factor

This picture was taken on Monday, February 14th 2011. Whats better than a bunch of roses for Valentine's day? The Sun has the answer. An X-class flare is what we all of humanity likes. This is like the dawning of the age of Aquarius for solar astronomers. An X-class flare is a massive solar flare, one that has not been seen for quite some time. The flare was so bright that it distorted the pixels of the image from overflow. This X-class flare caused an coronal mass ejection. What none of these sites or the APOD explained was that if there is a possibility for a flare of this magnitude to damage or effect Earth, other than in some killer Aurora. Anyways, this flare is the courier for a much welcomed solar maximum, which will mean even more ejections and flares. The solar maximum also peaks around 2012...

APOD 3.3

The Whirlpool Galaxy, M51

An extremely beautiful sight to see in infrared. This is the perfect time for this APOD to come along as we are studying interstellar medium. This photo is shopped to dissipate the glare of the massive amounts of stars withing the galaxy, but it still is a behemoth of doom. The extremely large and swirly galaxy is only about 15,000 light years across, no big deal, but its shape and pronounced swirls are the most interesting part. The reason the image was taken was to explore how the galaxy forms stars. The interstellar medium we are studying definitely pertains to the giant laboratory that this galaxy is. This is a beautiful sight, but I wish we could explore it more.