Abstract
The view that stars were solely objects of mathematical analysis that would forever lie beyond the realm of physics was dispelled by Gustav Robert Kirchhoff in 1860. Kirchhoff's science of spectroscopy revealed that distant stars are composed of the chemical elements found in earthly bodies. His revelations transformed the astronomer into something of a chemist, and the chemist into something of an astronomer.
© 2002 Optical Society of America
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