A brilliant young student solved one of the oldest mysteries in human curiosity, figuring out what the stars are made of, and the scientific establishment forced her to write into her own thesis that her findings were probably an illusion. This is the story of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin.

This episode traces how she fought for the right to state the truth about the universe, from a Cambridge that denied her a degree to a Harvard that overlooked her on its payroll for decades, all while producing a staggering body of research.

• Eddington’s eclipse lecture that transformed her picture of reality
• Applying ionization theory to read the true recipe of the stars
• Proving the universe is overwhelmingly hydrogen and helium
• How Henry Norris Russell later took the bulk of the credit
• Five million stellar observations and inspiring the scientists who followed