Russell, Henry Norris, 1877–1957, American astronomer, b. Oyster Bay, N.Y., grad. Princeton, 1897. In 1902 he went to Cambridge, England, to study. He returned to Princeton in 1905, was professor of astronomy there (1911–27), research professor (1927–47), and director of the observatory (1912–47). In 1947 he became research associate at the Harvard Observatory. Russell established a method of determining the dimensions of eclipsing binary stars. With Ejnar Hertzsprung he devised the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. His spectroscopic studies resulted in his development of a theory of stellar evolution. He wrote Determinations of Stellar Parallax (1911), Astronomy (1926–27), Fate and Freedom (1927), The Solar System and Its Origin (1935), and The Masses of the Stars (with C. E. Moore, 1940).
See biography by D. H. DeVorkin (2000).
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