Andrew McKellar (1910-1960)
Born in 1910 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Education Received his bachelor’s degree from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and then went into obtain his master’s degree at the University of California in Berkeley in 1932 and his doctoral degree in 1933, specializing in molecular spectroscopy. Career In 1933, he became the postdoctoral researcher at MIT and in 1935 he accepted a position at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, BC, beginning by measuring the orbits of binary stars and at the same time, pursuing his own research into molecular spectroscopy. World War II McKellar became a research officer for the Royal Canadian Navy and at the same time, he pursued his astronomy work publishing several significant articles and in 1940, using spectroscopy, determined the composition of comets. Contribution In 1940, he was the first to detect matter in interstellar space, identifying the matter as cyanogen and methyne, deducing the temperature of these molecules in 1941 and the interstellar medium in which they are found (about -271 degrees Celsius, close to absolute zero) In 1948 he was the first to provide proof that there exists a carbon-nitrogen cycle within cold carbon stars. The CN cycle is a chain of thermonuclear reactions in which carbon and nitrogen combine exothermically. The energy released from these reactions are able to sustain cold carbon stars. |