McKellar, Andrew

He worked as an Astronomer at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria from 1935-1939 and 1945-1960.

He was considered to have been one of Canada's greatest astronomers.

In 1940, he began using spectroscopy to determine the composition of comets and demonstrated that solar rays modify their spectra. in 1940, he was the first to detect the presence of matter in interstellar space when he identified the spectrum of the organic compounds cyanogen (“CN”) and methyne (“CH”).

In 1941, he determined the temperature of the cyanogen molecules and deduced that the interstellar medium in which they are found is very cold, approximately -271 °C.

In 1948, he was the first to provide proof of the existence of the carbon-nitrogen cycle (“CN cycle”) within cold carbon stars. The CN cycle, which had been predicted 10 years earlier, is a chain of thermonuclear reactions in which carbon and nitrogen combine to release enormous amounts of energy. According to the theory, it is this energy that sustains cold carbon stars.

He was appointed as an Electrical Lieutenant-Commabder (Temp.) RCNVR (With seniority dated 04/04/1944).

In 1944 he served on indefinite leave pursuing his astronomical research. (He was demobilized.)

In 1962, the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria named their 1.2-metre telescope in his honour. The telescope is used to measure the speed of stars and to determine their chemical compositions.