ejnar hertzsprung biography

Ejnar Hertzsprung was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1873. Hertzsprung grew up in an environment where astronomy was fostered, because his father was had studied astronomy, but could not find a position. His father got a job as an insurance director and supported Hertzsprung through his early years that way. Hertzsprung attended grade school in Copenhagen, before moving on the Copenhagen Polytechnics to study chemistry. During the turn of the century, Hertzsprung was working with with acetylene-lightning in St. Petersburg Russia. Hertzsprung began to have success in his field during this time. He studied chemistry at Leziping for a short while, but decided to move back home after the tragic death of his brother. Living back in Copenhagen with his mother and sister, he started his own scientific research. The family was able to support him due to previous financial gains. Hertzsprung began to develop research in the field of stereo-photography and spectrophotometry. He was still not recognized in the astronomy field. After 1902, Hertzsprung decided to continue his career at the University of Copenhagen's Obersvatory. During 1905, Hertzsprung compiled his research and he published "Zur Strahlung der Sterne" in "Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Photographie". He was able to discover that stars in the late spectral classes are divided into multiple series. The luminous red stars he found, were the largest. He was the first to understand the connection between luminosity and the spectrum of light that was emitted. He published his work in a different book, and went on to meet Russell, an american scientist. The two had the same results, and thus the diagram that was created to plot luminosity and spectra was named the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram. The diagram shows wavelength of light, visual and absolute magnitude. Hertzsprung recieved Gold Medal for the Royal Astronomical Society in 1929 and the Bruce Medal in 1937 for his work concerning the Hertzpsrung-Russel diagram and estimating the distance to the Small Magelliac Cloud using parallax. He also discovered two asteroids, one of which was named Amor asteroid 1627 Ivar. Hertzsprung passed away with much scientific and astronomical accomplishment in October of 1967 at age 94.