[1] Her groundbreaking conclusion was initially rejected by leading astrophysicists, including Henry Norris Russell,[2] because it contradicted the science of the time, which held that no significant elemental differences distinguished the Sun and Earth.

[1][2][3][4] Overcoming barriers for female scientists – Payne did not receive a degree from Cambridge despite completing her studies[5] – her work on the cosmic makeup of the universe and the nature of variable stars was foundational to modern astrophysics.

[11] Her mother came from a Prussian family and had two distinguished uncles, historian Georg Heinrich Pertz and the Swedenborgian writer James John Garth Wilkinson.

The following year she won a scholarship covering her expenses at Newnham College, Cambridge University, where she studied physics and chemistry.

[11] Her interest in astronomy began after she attended a lecture by Arthur Eddington, detailing his 1919 expedition to the island of Príncipe in the Gulf of Guinea off the west coast of Africa to observe and photograph the stars near a solar eclipse as a test of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.

LJ (Leslie John) Comrie, an astronomy PhD candidate at Cambridge University, introduced her to Harlow Shapley, the Director of the Harvard College Observatory, after a lecture in London at the British Astronomical Association.

Shapley persuaded Payne to write a doctoral dissertation, and so in 1925 she became the first person to earn a PhD in astronomy from Radcliffe College of Harvard University.

[1][20]While analyzing glass plates at the Harvard College Observatory,[5] Payne made a groundbreaking discovery by accurately relating the spectral classes of stars to their actual temperatures using Indian physicist Meghnad Saha's ionization theory.

[21][22] However, when Payne's dissertation was reviewed, Henry Norris Russell, a pre-eminent astronomer of the day who adhered to the theories of American physicist Henry Rowland, urged her not to assert that the composition of the Sun was predominantly hydrogen because it contradicted the scientific consensus of the time that the elemental composition of the Sun and the Earth were similar.

[23] Russell, in a 1914 article, had argued that: The agreement of the solar and terrestrial lists is such as to confirm very strongly Rowland's opinion that, if the Earth's crust should be raised to the temperature of the Sun's atmosphere, it would give a very similar absorption spectrum.

"[5] Four years later, however, Russell realized that Payne had been correct when he derived the same results by different means, effectively demonstrating that hydrogen and helium were the most abundant elements in the Milky Way.

Harlow Shapley (the Director of the Harvard College Observatory) had made efforts to improve her position, and in 1938 she was given the title of "Astronomer".

[14] Her students included Joseph Ashbrook, Frank Drake, Harlan Smith and Paul W. Hodge, all of whom made important contributions to astronomy.

Under the direction of Harlow Shapley and Dr. E. J. Sheridan (whom Payne-Gaposchkin described as a mentor[15]), the observatory had already offered more opportunities in astronomy to women than did other institutions.

This was evident in the achievements accomplished earlier in the century by Williamina Fleming, Antonia Maury, Annie Jump Cannon, and Henrietta Swan Leavitt.

Feynman's mother and grandmother had dissuaded her from pursuing science, since they believed women were not physically capable of understanding scientific concepts.

[38] While accepting the Henry Norris Russell Prize from the American Astronomical Society, Payne spoke of her lifelong passion for research: "The reward of the young scientist is the emotional thrill of being the first person in the history of the world to see something or understand something.

She helped him get a visa to the United States, and they married in March 1934, settling in the historic town of Lexington, Massachusetts, a short commute from Harvard.