British physicist Arthur Stanley Eddington (Figure 1) made major contributions to physics and astronomy. By making mathematical models of stellar interiors, treating a star as a sphere supported against gravitational collapse by thermal pressure, he deduced that stellar cores must be extremely hot (Figure 2). He also showed that stellar matter in most types of star behaves as an ideal gas.
Another aspect of Eddington’s work involved relativity. In 1919 he took part in an expedition to Principe to measure the apparent shift in a star’s position when its light passes close to the Sun and is deflected by the solar gravitational field, as Einstein had predicted (Figure 3). Such a shift could only be detected during a solar eclipse, as at other times the sunlight would make it impossible to see the star.
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe
