author
Harlow Shapley
1885–1972
A pioneering astronomer who helped show just how vast the Milky Way really is, he changed the way people understood our place in the galaxy. He also became a major public voice for science during his long career at Harvard.
1 Audiobook
On the distribution of intensity in stellar absorption lines
by Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Harlow Shapley
About the author
Born in Missouri in 1885, he studied at the University of Missouri and then at Princeton before building his scientific reputation at Mount Wilson Observatory. His early work on variable stars and star clusters led to one of his biggest achievements: using Cepheid variables to estimate the size of the Milky Way and to argue that the Sun is not at its center.
He later served for many years as director of the Harvard College Observatory, from 1921 to 1952, and remained one of the best-known American astronomers of his era. He is also remembered for taking part in the 1920 "Great Debate" on the scale of the universe, a famous moment in the history of astronomy.
Beyond research, he was active in public life and spoke out on political and social issues, especially in support of science and international cooperation. He died in 1972, leaving behind a legacy that reaches far beyond technical astronomy into the broader story of how modern people came to picture the universe.