Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington

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Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington 1882-1944, British astronomer and physicist. He was chief assistant (1906-13) at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and was from 1913 Plumian professor of astronomy at Cambridge, where he was director of the observatory from 1914. Eddington was one of the first physicists to grasp the theory of relativity, of which he became a leading exponent. He organized the expedition to view a total solar eclipse in 1919; his observations of bright objects near the sun confirmed the prediction of general relativity that light rays are bent when subjected to a strong gravitational field. He made important contributions to the study of the evolution, motion, and internal constitution of stars, but rejected the idea that gravitional collapse could produce a black hole. His theory that stars shine from the energy of nuclear reactions is considered the start of modern astrophysics. One of the foremost contemporary expositors of scientific subjects, he was also concerned with the relation of physics to philosophy. He was knighted in 1930. His writings include Mathematical Theory of Relativity (1923), The Internal Constitution of the Stars (1926; his most famous book), and Stars and Atoms (1928).

Bibliography: See biographies by A. V. Douglas (1956) and C. W. Kilmister (1966); study by Sir E. Whittaker (1951); A. I. Miller, Empire of the Stars: Obsession, Friendship, and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes (2005).

Eddington, Sir Arthur Stanley (1882–1944) English astronomer and physicist. He pioneered the use of atomic theory to study the constitution of stars. Among his discoveries were the mass-luminosity relationship and the degeneration of matter by white dwarfs. Eddington helped popularize the theory of relativity, and in 1919 obtained proof of the general theory that gravity bends light by measuring stars close to the Sun during a solar eclipse.