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| Sir Arthur Eddington |
Sir Arthur Eddington was an eminent English astronomer, physicist and
mathematician. He is noted for his grounbreaking research work in
astrophysics. Being the first person to investigate the motion, internal
structure and evolution of stars, Eddington is widely considered to be
one of the greatest astronomers of all time.
Born on December 28, 1882 in Kendal, Cumbria, Arthur Eddington’s father
was the head of a local school. Eddington was a bright student and he
won an entrance scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge. After
graduating three years later, he accepted a teaching position, and after
a few months, Eddington became the Chief Assistant at the Royal
Observatory, Greenwich.
Eddington visited Malta in 1909 to find out the longitude of the
geodetic station of the place. He also visited Brazil as the head of the
eclipse expedition. He became the Plumian Professor of Astronomy in
Cambridge in 1913, where he taught for about 31 years.
He published his first book, “Stellar Movements and the structure of
the Universe”, in 1914. It laid the groundwork for scientific
exposition. “The Internal Construction of the Stars”, another work by
Eddington was published in 1926, which still remains one of the
best-selling books about astronomy. His “Mathematical Theory of
Relativity” was the earliest work in English language that explained the
mathematical details of Einstein’s theory of gravitation.
Eddington discovered in 1926 that the inward gravitational pressure
of a star must maintain the outward radiation and gas pressure to remain
in equilibrium. He also demonstrated that there was an upper limit on
the mass of a star. Eddington discovered mass-luminosity relationship,
which implies that the the size of a star is directly proportional to
its luminosity, making the mass of a star to be decided upon its
intrinsic brightness.
In “Fundamental Theory”, which was published after his death,
Eddington introduced his calculations of many of the constant of nature,
particularly the recession velocity constant of the external galaxies,
the ratio of the gravitational force to the electrical force between a
proton and an electron, and the number of particles in the universe.
Arthur Eddington became a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in
1906, and eight years later, an elected Fellow of the Royal Society in
1914. He was knighted in 1938.
Eddington died in Cambridge, England on November 22, 1944 after an
unsuccessful surgical operation. Eddington Memorial Scholarship and
Eddington Medal were established after his death, in his honor.
