Harlow Shapley

Shapley, Harlow 

Born Nov. 2, 1885, in Nashville, Mo.; died Oct. 20,1972, in Boulder, Colo. American astronomer.

Shapley graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1910, and from 1912 to 1914 he worked at Princeton University. From 1914 to 1921 he was an astronomer at the Mount Wilson Observatory. From 1921 to 1952 he was director of the Harvard Observatory.

Shapley was a pioneer in a new method of investigating the structure of the Milky Way Galaxy and other stellar systems based on the study of variable stars. Between 1910 and 1912 Shapley and H. Russell developed a method of determining the orbital elements of eclipsing binaries. Shapley also worked out a method of determining distances to remote stellar systems and star clusters based on observations of the constituent variable stars known as the cepheids. From 1915 to 1917 he investigated a system of globular clusters and determined the direction to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Shapley’s research in extragalactic stellar systems is of great importance. Shapley also studied the Magellanic Clouds and investigated the structural features and spatial distribution of other galaxies. In addition, he was instrumental in organizing the study of meteors using the photographic method.

WORKS

“Elements of the Eclipsing Variable Stars . . . .” Astrophysical Journal, 1914, vol. 39, pp. 405–27. (With H. N. Russell.)
Flights From Chaos . . . . New York, 1930.
In Russian translation:
Ot atomov do mlechnykhputei. Moscow-Leningrad, 1934.
Galaktiki. Moscow-Leningrad, 1947.