Chadwick discovers the neutron
Chadwick discovers the neutron
Overview
In 1932 James Chadwick identified the neutron, a neutral particle with nearly the mass of a proton, completing the basic picture of the atomic nucleus. The discovery immediately transformed astrophysics: within two years Baade and Zwicky proposed that supernovae collapse cores into neutron stars, and neutrons proved central to stellar nucleosynthesis and the r-process that forges heavy elements. Nearly every high-energy phenomenon in the universe now traces back to the physics Chadwick's particle made possible.
Related astronomers
1893–1960Walter BaadeDistinguished major stellar populations and recalibrated the extragalactic distance scale using resolved stars.1898–1974Fritz ZwickyDark-matter evidence in galaxy clusters and supernova research.1910–1995Subrahmanyan ChandrasekharTheory of stellar structure, white dwarfs and compact objects.