In her 1925 doctoral thesis, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin determined that stars are composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium — contradicting everything scientists believed at the time. The most prominent astronomer of the era, Henry Norris Russell, called it "clearly impossible" and pressured her to bury the finding in a footnote. Four years later, Russell reached the same conclusion independently and received the credit. Her thesis was later called "the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy."
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