Sir Arthur Eddington | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Arthur Stanley Eddington 28 December 1882 Kendal, Westmorland, England |
| Died | 22 November 1944 (aged 61) Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Alma mater | University of Manchester Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Known for | Arrow of time Eddington approximation Eddington experiment Eddington's affine geometry Eddington limit Eddington number Eddington valve Eddington–Dirac number Eddington–Finkelstein coordinates Eddington stellar model Eddington–Sweet circulation |
| Awards | Royal Society Royal Medal (1928) Smith's Prize (1907) RAS Gold Medal (1924) Henry Draper Medal (1924) Bruce Medal (1924) Knight Bachelor (1930) Order of Merit (1938) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics |
| Institutions | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Academic advisors | |
| Doctoral students | Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar[1] Leslie Comrie Hermann Bondi |
| Other notable students | Georges Lemaître Vibert Douglas George C. McVittie |
Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington OM FRS[2] (28 December 1882 – 22 November 1944) was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. He was also a philosopher of science and a populariser of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the luminosity of stars, or the radiation generated by accretion onto a compact object, is named in his honour.
Around 1920, he foreshadowed the discovery and mechanism of nuclear fusion processes in stars, in his paper "The Internal Constitution of the Stars".[3][4] At that time, the source of stellar energy was a complete mystery; Eddington was the first to correctly speculate that the source was fusion of hydrogen into helium.
Eddington wrote a number of articles that announced and explained Einstein's theory of general relativity to the English-speaking world. World War I had severed many lines of scientific communication, and new developments in German science were not well known in England. He also conducted an expedition to observe the solar eclipse of 29 May 1919 on the Island of Príncipe that provided one of the earliest confirmations of general relativity, and he became known for his popular expositions and interpretations of the theory.
- ^ Arthur Eddington at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ^ Plummer, H. C. (1945). "Arthur Stanley Eddington. 1882–1944". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 5 (14): 113–126. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1945.0007. S2CID 121473352.
- ^ The Internal Constitution of the Stars A. S. Eddington The Scientific Monthly Vol. 11, No. 4 (Oct., 1920), pp. 297–303 JSTOR 6491
- ^ Eddington, A. S. (1916). "On the radiative equilibrium of the stars". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 77: 16–35. Bibcode:1916MNRAS..77...16E. doi:10.1093/mnras/77.1.16.