Biography:Svetlana Gerasimenko
Svetlana Gerasimenko | |
|---|---|
Светлана Герасименко Світлана Герасименко | |
 Gerasimenko in 2014 | |
| Born | Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko 23 February 1945 Baryshivka, Kyiv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR |
| Died | 8 April 2025 (aged 80) |
| Citizenship | Soviet Union, Tajikistan |
| Alma mater | Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv |
| Known for | Comet discovery |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko (Russian: Светлана Ивановна Герасименко; Ukrainian: Світлана Іванівна Герасименко; 23 February 1945 – 8 April 2025) was a Soviet and Tajikistani astronomer and discoverer of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Early life
Gerasimenko was born in the Ukrainian SSR in 1945. She was an ethnic Ukrainian; her father was Ukrainian and her mother Polish.[1]
Discovery of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
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On 11 September 1969 Gerasimenko, while working at the Alma-Ata Astrophysical Institute near Almaty, the then-capital city of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union photographed the comet 32P/Comas Solà using a 50-cm Maksutov telescope.[2]
After she returned to her home institute, Klim Ivanovych Churyumov of the Kyiv National University's Astronomical Observatory examined this photograph and found a cometary object near the edge of the plate, but assumed that this was Comas Solà.[3][4] On 22 October, about a month after the photograph was taken, he discovered that the object could not be Comas Solà, because it was 2–3 degrees off the expected position. Further scrutiny produced a faint image of Comas Solà at its expected position on the plate, thus proving that the other object was a different comet.[3] By looking through all the material collected they found this new object on four more plates, dated 9 and 21 September.[4]
Death
Gerasimenko died on 8 April 2025, at the age of 80.[5]
Honors
Named after her
- Periodic comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
- Minor planet 3945 Gerasimenko
See also
- Timeline of women in science
References
- ↑ "Герасименко: я открыла комету случайно". 17 November 2014. http://www.bbc.com/russian/science/2014/11/141117_comet_gerasimenko_interview. "Я украинка по отцу, полячка по маме, но осознаю себя украинкой."
- ↑ "Klim Ivanovich Churyumov". International Astronomical Union. http://www.iau.org/administration/membership/individual/61/.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kronk, Gary W. et al. (2010). "67P/1969 R1 (Churyumov-Gerasimenko)". Cometography: A Catalog of Comets; Volume 5: 1960-1982. Cambridge University Press. pp. 241–245. ISBN 978-0521872263. https://books.google.com/books?id=qV4Q49x8PTsC&pg=PA241.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Svetlana Gerasimenko - co-discoverer of comet 67P". European Space Agency. http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/54597-svetlana-gerasimenko/.
- ↑ Скончалась таджикский астроном Светлана Герасименко, открывшая комету 67P/Чурюмова–Герасименко Script error: The function "in_lang" does not exist.
External links
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