List of Russian astronomers and astrophysicists
Encyclopedia
This list of Russia
n astronomer
s and astrophysicists includes the famous astronomers, astrophysicists and cosmologists from the Russian Empire
, the Soviet Union
and the Russian Federation.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
s and astrophysicists includes the famous astronomers, astrophysicists and cosmologists from the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and the Russian Federation.
A
- Tateos AgekianTateos AgekianTateos Artemjevich Agekian was an outstanding Soviet astrophysicist of Armenian descent, one of the pioneers of Russian and world Stellar dynamics. Has found two evolutionary sequences of stellar systems: nearly spherical and strongly flattened. Suggested essentially new method to investigate the...
, one of the pioneers of Russian and world Stellar dynamicsStellar dynamicsStellar dynamics is the branch of astrophysics which describes in a statistical way the collective motions of stars subject to their mutual gravity. The long range of gravity and the slow "relaxation" of stellar systems prevent the use of the methods of statistical physics...
, discoverer of two evolutionary sequences of stellar systems: nearly spherical and strongly flattened - Vladimir Albitsky, discovered a significant number of asteroids
- Viktor Ambartsumian, one of the founders of theoretical astrophysics, discoverer of stellar associations, founder of Byurakan ObservatoryByurakan ObservatoryThe Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, or Byurakan Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Armenian Academy of Sciences. It is located on the slope of Mount Aragats in the village of Byurakan in Armenia.-History:...
in ArmeniaArmeniaArmenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
B
- Nikolai P. BarabashovNikolai P. BarabashovNikolay Pavlovich Barabashov was a Soviet Russian astronomer.Barabashov graduated from Kharkov University, Ukraine, 1919; served as Director, Kharkov Observatory, 1930; Professor, Kharkov University, 1934; Rector, Kharkov University, 1943-1946...
, co-author of the ground breaking publication of the first pictures of the far side of the Moon in 1961, called Atlas of the Other Side of the Moon. A crater and a planet were named after him - Vladimir BelinskiVladimir BelinskiVladimir Alekseyevich Belinski is a Russian theoretical physicist involved in research in cosmology and general relativity. He worked at Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics with Evgeny Lifshitz and contributed to the redaction of some chapters in Landau and Lifshitz's course of theoretical...
, an author of the BKL singularityBKL singularityA BKL singularity is a model of the dynamic evolution of the Universe near the initial singularity, described by an anisotropic, homogeneous, chaotic solution to Einstein's field equations of gravitation...
model of the Universe evolution - Igor Belkovich, made notable contributions to astronomy. The crater Bel'kovich on the Moon is named after him
- Aristarkh Belopolsky, invented a spectrographSpectrographA spectrograph is an instrument that separates an incoming wave into a frequency spectrum. There are several kinds of machines referred to as spectrographs, depending on the precise nature of the waves...
based on the Doppler effectDoppler effectThe Doppler effect , named after Austrian physicist Christian Doppler who proposed it in 1842 in Prague, is the change in frequency of a wave for an observer moving relative to the source of the wave. It is commonly heard when a vehicle sounding a siren or horn approaches, passes, and recedes from...
, among the first photographers of stellar spectra - Sergey Belyavsky, discovered the bright naked-eye comet C/1911 S3 (Beljawsky). He discovered and co-discovered a number of asteroids
- Gennady S. Bisnovatyi-KoganGennady S. Bisnovatyi-KoganGennady S. Bisnovati-Kogan is an astrophysicist. He is known for predicting binary radio pulsars.Bisnovati-Kogan was a student at Moscow Physical-Technical Institute from 1958-1964...
, first determined the maximum mass of a hot neutron star - Sergey Blazhko, discovered a secondary variation of the amplitude and period of some RR Lyrae stars and related pulsating variables, now known as the Blazhko effect
- Semion BraudeSemion BraudeSemion Yakovlevich Braude was a Ukrainian physicist and radio astronomer.Of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, Buaude was born in Poltava, Ukraine, and pursued his higher education at the Kharkov University , receiving his undergraduate degree from the Physics and Mathematics Department in 1932...
, co-developed large-scale radio interferometers for precise examination of extraterrestrial radio sources - Fyodor Bredikhin, developed the theory of cometCometA comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
tails, meteorMETEORMETEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
s and meteor showerMeteor showerA meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories. Most meteors are smaller...
s, a director of the Pulkovo ObservatoryPulkovo ObservatoryThe Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory астрономи́ческая обсервато́рия Росси́йской акаде́мии нау́к), the principal astronomical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, located 19 km south of Saint Petersburg on Pulkovo Heights... - Jacob BruceJacob BruceJacob Daniel Bruce was a Russian statesman, military leader and scientist of self-claimed Scottish descent , one of the associates of Peter the Great. According to his own record, his ancestors had lived in Russia since 1649....
, statesman, naturalist and astronomer, founder of the first observatoryObservatoryAn observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed...
in Russia (in the Sukharev TowerSukharev TowerThe Sukharev Tower was one of the best known landmarks and symbols of Moscow until its destruction by the Soviet authorities in 1934. The tower was built in the Moscow baroque style at the intersection of the Garden Ring with the Sretenka street in 1692-1695.Tsar Peter the Great ordered the...
)
C
- Lyudmila ChernykhLyudmila ChernykhLyudmila Ivanovna Chernykh is a Russian, Ukrainian and Soviet astronomer.In 1959 she graduated from Irkutsk State Pedagogical University. Between 1959 and 1963 she worked in the 'Time and Frequency Laboratory' of the All-Union Research Institute of Physico-Technical and Radiotechnical Measurements...
, astronomer, discovered 268 asteroidAsteroidAsteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
s - Nikolai Chernykh, astronomer, discovered 537 asteroidAsteroidAsteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
s and 2 comets - Aleksandr ChudakovAleksandr ChudakovAleksandr Evgenievich Chudakov was a Soviet Russian physicist in the field of cosmic-ray physics, known for Chudakov Effect, the effect of decreasing ionization losses for narrow electron-positron pairs and for experimentally confirming existence of the transition radiation.He was also the...
, co-discoverer of the Earth's radiation belt
D
- Denis DenisenkoDenis DenisenkoDenis Denisenko is a Russian astronomer and ironist of the late 20th – early 21st century.-Biography:Born in 1971 in Moscow, Denisenko graduated from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1993 with a Master of Science in Astrophysics and a Diploma: Spectral Properties of Gamma-Ray Bursts...
, notable astronomer, author of more than 25 scientific articles and a presenter at five international conferences - A. G. DoroshkevichA. G. DoroshkevichA. G. Doroshkevich is a Russian theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist.He is best known for his work with Igor Novikov on the recognition of Cosmic microwave background radiation as a detectable phenomenon in the spring of 1964....
, along with Igor Novikov, discovered cosmic microwave background radiation as a detectable phenomenon - Alexander DubyagoAlexander DubyagoAlexander Dmitriyevich Dubyago was a Soviet astronomer and expert in theoretical astrophysics. The lunar crater Dubyago is named after him and his father, Dmitry Ivanovich Dubyago.-References:...
, expert in theoretical astrophysics. The lunar crater Dubyago is named after him and his father, Dmitry Ivanovich Dubyago - Dmitry DubyagoDmitry DubyagoDmitry Ivanovich Dubyago was a Russian astronomer and expert in theoretical astrophysics, astrometry, and gravimetry. A crater on the Moon is named after Dmitry Dubyago.-References:...
, expert in theoretical astrophysics, astrometry, and gravimetry. A crater on the Moon is named after him and his son
E
- Vasily EngelhardtVasily EngelhardtVasily Pavlovich Engelhardt - May 6, 1915, Dresden) was a Russian astronomer and public figure.-Early life:...
, researched comets, asteroids, nebulae, and star clusters, in an observatory he built himself
F
- Vasily FesenkovVasily FesenkovVasiliy Grigorievich Fesenkov was a Soviet Russian astrophysicist.-Biography:He was born in Novocherkassk. After graduating from the Kharkov University he entered the Sorbonne, where he defended a dissertation for the Doctor of Science degree in 1914. Fesenkov was one of founders of the Russian...
, founded the Alma-Ata (now Almaty) astrophysical observatory, and was the first to make a study of Zodiacal light using photometry, and suggested a theory of its dynamics - Kirill Florensky, head of Comparative Planetology at the Vernadsky Institute of the U. S. S. R. Academy of Sciences. The crater FlorenskyFlorensky (crater)Florensky is a lunar crater that is attached to the northeastern rim of the larger crater Vernadskiy. It is located on the far side of the Moon and cannot be directly seen from the Earth. The rim of this crater has been heavily eroded and it forms an irregular ring about the uneven interior. This...
on the Moon is named after him - Alexander Friedmann, mathematician and cosmologist, discovered the expanding-universeMetric expansion of spaceThe metric expansion of space is the increase of distance between distant parts of the universe with time. It is an intrinsic expansion—that is, it is defined by the relative separation of parts of the universe and not by motion "outward" into preexisting space...
solutionFriedmann equationsThe Friedmann equations are a set of equations in physical cosmology that govern the expansion of space in homogeneous and isotropic models of the universe within the context of general relativity...
to the general relativityGeneral relativityGeneral relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics...
field equationsEinstein field equationsThe Einstein field equations or Einstein's equations are a set of ten equations in Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity which describe the fundamental interaction of gravitation as a result of spacetime being curved by matter and energy...
. Authored the FLRW metric of UniverseUniverseThe Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature... - Alexei FridmanAlexei FridmanAlexey Maksimovich Fridman was a Soviet physicist specializing in astrophysics, physics of gravitating systems and plasma physics. He discovered new types of instabilities in gravitating media, created the theory of planetary rings and predicted the existence of small Uranus satellites that were...
, predicted existence of smaller satellites around UranusUranusUranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
G
- George GamowGeorge GamowGeorge Gamow , born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov , was a Russian-born theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He discovered alpha decay via quantum tunneling and worked on radioactive decay of the atomic nucleus, star formation, stellar nucleosynthesis, Big Bang nucleosynthesis, cosmic microwave...
, theoretical physicist and cosmologist, discovered alpha decay via quantum tunneling and Gamow factorGamow factorThe Gamow Factor or Gamow-Sommerfeld Factor, named after its discoverer George Gamow, is a probability factor for two nuclear particles' chance of overcoming the Coulomb barrier in order to undergo nuclear reactions, for example in nuclear fusion...
in stellar nucleosynthesisStellar nucleosynthesisStellar nucleosynthesis is the collective term for the nuclear reactions taking place in stars to build the nuclei of the elements heavier than hydrogen. Some small quantity of these reactions also occur on the stellar surface under various circumstances...
, introduced the big bang nucleosynthesisBig Bang nucleosynthesisIn physical cosmology, Big Bang nucleosynthesis refers to the production of nuclei other than those of H-1 during the early phases of the universe...
theory, predicted cosmic microwave background - Vitaly GinzburgVitaly GinzburgVitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg ForMemRS was a Soviet theoretical physicist, astrophysicist, Nobel laureate, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and one of the fathers of Soviet hydrogen bomb...
, co-developed the theory of superconductivity, the theory of electromagnetic wave propagation in plasmas, and a theory of the origin of cosmic radiation - Sergey Glazenap, notable astronomer. A crater on the Moon and the minor planet 857 Glasenappia857 Glasenappia-External links:*...
have been named after him - Alexander A. GurshteinAlexander A. GurshteinAlexander A. Gurshtein is a Russian astronomer and historian of science.Gurshtein earned his Candidate of Science from Sternberg State Astronomical Institute, Moscow in 1966 and a Doctor of Science degree in Physics & Mathematics from Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in St...
, developed a concept of history of constellations and the zodiac - Matvey Gusev, the first to prove the non-sphericity of the MoonMoonThe Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
, pioneer of photography in astronomy
J
- Benjamin JekhowskyBenjamin JekhowskyBenjamin Jekhowsky , died in 1975, Encausse-les-Thermes ) was a Russian-French astronomer, born in Saint-Petersburg in a noble family of a Russian railroad official. After attending Moscow University, he worked at the Paris Observatory beginning in 1912...
, discovered a number of asteroids, made more than 190 scientific publications and the asteroid 1606 Jekhovsky1606 Jekhovsky1606 Jekhovsky is a main-belt asteroid discovered on September 14, 1950 by L. Boyer at Algiers.- External links :*...
is named after him
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- Lyudmila Karachkina, discovered a number of asteroids, including the Amor asteroid 5324 Lyapunov5324 Lyapunov5324 Lyapunov is an Amor asteroid discovered on September 22, 1987 by L. G. Karachkina at Nauchnyj.- External links :...
, 10031 Vladarnolda10031 Vladarnolda10031 Vladarnolda is a main belt asteroid with an orbital period of 1521.8960898 days . The asteroid was discovered on September 7, 1981....
and the Trojan asteroid 3063 Makhaon3063 Makhaon3063 Makhaon is a Jupiter trojan asteroid that orbits in the Lagrangian point of the Sun-Jupiter system, in the "Greek Camp" of trojan asteroids. It was named after the Greek hero Makhaon, who fought during the Trojan War. It was discovered by Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina in Nauchnyj, Ukraine on... - Nikolai KardashevNikolai KardashevNikolai Semenovich Kardashev is a Russian astrophysicist, and is the deputy director of the Russian Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.Kardashev graduated from Moscow State University in 1955, following up at...
, astrophysicist, inventor of Kardashev scaleKardashev scaleThe Kardashev scale is a method of measuring an advanced civilization's level of technological advancement. The scale is only theoretical and in terms of an actual civilization highly speculative; however, it puts energy consumption of an entire civilization in a cosmic perspective. It was first...
for ranking the space civilizations - Isaak Khalatnikov, an author of the BKL singularityBKL singularityA BKL singularity is a model of the dynamic evolution of the Universe near the initial singularity, described by an anisotropic, homogeneous, chaotic solution to Einstein's field equations of gravitation...
model of the Universe evolution - Viktor KnorreViktor KnorreViktor Knorre was a Russian astronomer of German ethnic origin.-Biography and family background:Viktor Knorre was born into a three-generation astronomer family...
, notable astronomer, discovered four asteroids - Marian Kowalski, the first to measure the rotation of the Milky WayMilky WayThe Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
- Nikolai Aleksandrovich KozyrevNikolai Aleksandrovich KozyrevNikolai Alexandrovich Kozyrev was a Russian astronomer/astrophysicist.-Biography:He was born in St. Petersburg, and by 1928 he had graduated from the Leningrad State University. In 1931 he began working at the Pulkovo Observatory, located to the south of Leningrad...
, notable astronomer, observed the transient lunar phenomenon - Georgij A. KrasinskyGeorgij A. KrasinskyGeorgij A. Krasinsky was a Russian astronomer active at the Institute of Applied Astronomy, Russian Academy of Science, St Petersburg. He was notable for research on planetary motions and ephemeris....
, notable astronomer, researched planetary motions and ephemeris - Feodosy KrasovskyFeodosy KrasovskyFeodosy Nikolaevich Krasovsky was a Russian and later Soviet astronomer and geodesist. He was born in Galich. In 1900 he graduated from the Mezhevoy Institute in Moscow; in 1907 he began working as a lecturer there.-Research work:...
, astronomer and geodesist, measured the Krasovsky ellipsoid, a coordinate system used in the USSR and the post-Soviet states - Yevgeny KrinovYevgeny KrinovYevgeny Leonidovich Krinov , D.G.S., was a Soviet Russian astronomer and geologist, born in Otyassakh in the Tambov region of the Russian Empire...
, notable astronomer, renowned meteorite researcher; the mineral Krinovite, discovered in 1966, was named after him
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- Anders Johan LexellAnders Johan LexellAnders Johan Lexell was a Swedish-born Russian astronomer, mathematician, and physicist who spent most of his life in Russia where he is known as Andrei Ivanovich Leksel .Lexell made important discoveries in polygonometry and celestial mechanics; the latter led to a comet named in...
, astronomer and mathematician, researcher of celestial mechanicsCelestial mechanicsCelestial mechanics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the motions of celestial objects. The field applies principles of physics, historically classical mechanics, to astronomical objects such as stars and planets to produce ephemeris data. Orbital mechanics is a subfield which focuses on...
and cometCometA comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
astronomy, proved that UranusUranusUranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
is a planet rather than a cometCometA comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet... - Andrei LindeAndrei LindeAndrei Dmitriyevich Linde is a Russian-American theoretical physicist and professor of Physics at Stanford University. Dr. Linde is best known for his work on the concept of the inflationary universe. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Moscow State University. In 1975, Linde was...
, created the Universe chaotic inflation theoryChaotic inflation theoryThe Chaotic Inflation theory is a variety of the inflationary universe model, which is itself an outgrowth of the Big Bang theory. Chaotic Inflation, proposed by physicist Andrei Linde, models our universe as one of many that grew as part of a multiverse owing to a vacuum that had not decayed to... - Evgeny LifshitzEvgeny LifshitzEvgeny Mikhailovich Lifshitz was a leading Soviet physicist of Jewish origin and the brother of physicist Ilya Mikhailovich Lifshitz. Lifshitz is well known in general relativity for coauthoring the BKL conjecture concerning the nature of a generic curvature...
, an author of the BKL singularityBKL singularityA BKL singularity is a model of the dynamic evolution of the Universe near the initial singularity, described by an anisotropic, homogeneous, chaotic solution to Einstein's field equations of gravitation...
model of the Universe evolution - Mikhail LomonosovMikhail LomonosovMikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries was the atmosphere of Venus. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art,...
polymath, inventor of the off-axis reflecting telescope, discoverer of the atmosphere of VenusAtmosphere of VenusThe atmosphere of Venus is much denser and hotter than that of Earth. The temperature at the surface is 740 K , while the pressure is 93 bar. The Venusian atmosphere supports opaque clouds made of sulfuric acid, making optical Earth-based and orbital observation of the surface impossible... - Mikhail LyapunovMikhail LyapunovMikhail Vasilyevich Lyapunov was a Russian astronomer and a head of the Demidov Lyceum in Yaroslavl. He was the father of Aleksandr and Sergei Lyapunov.-References:...
, notable astronomer - Kronid LyubarskyKronid LyubarskyKronid Arkadyevich Lyubarsky was a Russian journalist, dissident, human rights activist and political prisoner.-Early career and arrest:Born in the city of Pskov, Russia, on April 4, 1934, Lyubarsky graduated from Moscow University in 1956 and worked as an astrophysicist at the All-Union Institute...
, worked on the Soviet program of interplanetary exploration of Mars
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- Dmitri Dmitrievich MaksutovDmitri Dmitrievich MaksutovDmitry Dmitrievich Maksutov was a Russian / Soviet optical engineer and amateur astronomer. He is best known as the inventor of the Maksutov telescope.-Biography:...
, inventor of the Maksutov telescopeMaksutov telescopeThe Maksutov is a catadioptric telescope design that combines a spherical mirror with a weakly negative meniscus lens in a design that takes advantage of all the surfaces being nearly "spherically symmetrical". The negative lens is usually full diameter and placed at the entrance pupil of the... - Aleksandr Aleksandrovich MikhailovAleksandr Aleksandrovich MikhailovAleksandr Aleksandrovich Mikhailov was a Russian astronomer who was a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He worked at Pulkovo Observatory from 1947 to 1982...
, credited with leading the post-war revival of the Pulkovo ObservatoryPulkovo ObservatoryThe Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory астрономи́ческая обсервато́рия Росси́йской акаде́мии нау́к), the principal astronomical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, located 19 km south of Saint Petersburg on Pulkovo Heights... - Nikolay Moiseyev, expert in celestial mechanicsCelestial mechanicsCelestial mechanics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the motions of celestial objects. The field applies principles of physics, historically classical mechanics, to astronomical objects such as stars and planets to produce ephemeris data. Orbital mechanics is a subfield which focuses on...
, worked on mathematical methods of celestial calculations and theory of comet formation
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- Grigory Neujmin, discovered 74 asteroids, and most notably 951 Gaspra951 Gaspra951 Gaspra is an S-type asteroid that orbits very close to the inner edge of the asteroid belt. Gaspra was the first asteroid ever to be closely approached when it was visited by the Galileo spacecraft, which flew by on its way to Jupiter on 29 October 1991.-Characteristics:Apart from a multitude...
and 762 Pulcova762 Pulcova762 Pulcova is a main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by Grigoriy N. Neujmin in 1913, and is named after Pulkovo Observatory, near Saint Petersburg... - Igor Dmitriyevich NovikovIgor Dmitriyevich NovikovIgor Dmitriyevich Novikov is a Russian theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist.Novikov formulated the Novikov self-consistency principle in the mid-1980s, an important contribution to the theory of time travel.Novikov gained his Ph.D. degree in astrophysics in 1965 and the Russian D.Sc....
, formulated the Novikov self-consistency principleNovikov self-consistency principleThe Novikov self-consistency principle, also known as the Novikov self-consistency conjecture, is a principle developed by Russian physicist Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov in the mid-1980s to solve the problem of paradoxes in time travel, which is theoretically permitted in certain solutions of general...
, an important contribution to the theory of time travelTime travelTime travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the... - Boris Numerov, created various astronomic and mineralogical instruments, as well as various algorithms and methods that bear his name
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- Pavel Petrovich ParenagoPavel Petrovich ParenagoPavel Petrovich Parenago was a Soviet scientist, astronomer, and professor. He served as the head of the Department of Stellar Astronomy at M.V...
, known for contributions to the field of galactic astronomyGalactic astronomyGalactic astronomy is the study of our own Milky Way galaxy and all its contents. This is in contrast to extragalactic astronomy, which is the study of everything outside our galaxy, including all other galaxies....
. - Yevgeny Perepyolkin, observed the proper motion of stars with respect to extragalactic nebula.
- Solomon Pikelner, made a significant contribution to the theory of the interstellar medium, solar plasma physics, stellar atmospheres, and magnetohydrodynamics
- Elena V. PitjevaElena V. PitjevaElena Vladimirovna Pitjeva is a Russian astronomer working at the Institute of Applied Astronomy, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. She has published over 100 articles, as listed in Google Scholar and the Astrophysics Data System in the field of solar system dynamics and celestial...
, expert in the field of solar system dynamics and celestial mechanics
S
- Viktor SafronovViktor SafronovViktor Sergeevich Safronov was a Soviet astronomer who put forward the low-mass-nebula model of planet formation, a consistent picture of how the planets formed from a disk of gas and dust around the Sun.-Biography and legacy:Safronov graduated from Moscow State University Department of...
, astronomer and cosmologist, author of the planetesimalPlanetesimalPlanetesimals are solid objects thought to exist in protoplanetary disks and in debris disks.A widely accepted theory of planet formation, the so-called planetesimal hypothesis of Viktor Safronov, states that planets form out of cosmic dust grains that collide and stick to form larger and larger...
hypothesis of planet formation - Kaspar Gottfried SchweizerKaspar Gottfried SchweizerKaspar Gottfried Schweizer was a Swiss astronomer who travelled to Moscow in 1845 to become Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at the Survey Institute, and later director of the Moscow University Observatory....
, discovered five comets, and found one NGC object - Andrei SevernyAndrei SevernyAndrei B. Severny was a Soviet astronomer, particularly known for his work on solar flares and astronomical observations from artificial satellites. He was director of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory from 1952–1987 and vice-president of the International Astronomical Union from 1964 to...
, known for his work on solar flares and astronomical observations from artificial satellites - Nikolai Shakura, developed theory of accretion and astrophysics of x-ray binaries, co-developed the standard theory of disk accretionAccretion (astrophysics)In astrophysics, the term accretion is used for at least two distinct processes.The first and most common is the growth of a massive object by gravitationally attracting more matter, typically gaseous matter in an accretion disc. Accretion discs are common around smaller stars or stellar remnants...
- Grigory Shayn, astronomer and astrophysicist, the first director of the Crimean Astrophysical ObservatoryCrimean Astrophysical ObservatoryThe Crimean Astrophysical Observatory is located in Ukraine. CrAO has been publishing the Bulletin of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory since 1947, in English since 1977. The observatory facilities are located near the settlement of Nauchny since the mid-1950s; before that, they were further...
, co-developed a method for measurement of stellar rotationStellar rotationStellar rotation is the angular motion of a star about its axis. The rate of rotation can be measured from the spectrum of the star, or by timing the movements of active features on the surface.... - Vladislav ShevchenkoVladislav ShevchenkoVladislav Vladimirovich Shevchenko is a Russian astronomer specialized in lunar exploration. He is the Head of Department of Lunar and Planetary Research, Sternberg State Astronomical Institute, Moscow State UniversityPositions in Professional Organizations:...
, notable astronomer, specialized in lunar exploration - Iosif ShklovskyIosif ShklovskyIosif Samuilovich Shklovsky was a Soviet astronomer and astrophysicist...
, astronomer and astrophysicist, author of several discoveries in the fields of radio astronomyRadio astronomyRadio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The initial detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was made in the 1930s, when Karl Jansky observed radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observations have identified a number of...
and cosmic rays, extraterrestrial lifeExtraterrestrial lifeExtraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
researcher - Tamara Mikhaylovna SmirnovaTamara Mikhaylovna SmirnovaTamara Mikhailovna Smirnova was a Russian astronomer.From 1966 to 1988 she was a staff member of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy at Leningrad. She co-discovered the periodic comet 74P/Smirnova-Chernykh, along with Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh. She has also discovered various asteroids...
, co-discovered the periodic comet 74P/Smirnova-Chernykh74P/Smirnova-Chernykh74P/Smirnova–Chernykh is a periodic comet in the solar system. It was discovered in late March 1975 by Tamara Mikhajlovna Smirnova whom was examining exposures from the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory. In the discovery images the comet had an apparent magnitude of ~15...
, along with Nikolai Stepanovich ChernykhNikolai Stepanovich ChernykhNikolay Stepanovich Chernykh was a Soviet and Russian astronomer.Chernykh was born in the city of Usman' in Voronezh Oblast...
. She has also discovered various asteroids. The asteroid 5540 Smirnova5540 Smirnova5540 Smirnova is a main-belt asteroid discovered on August 30, 1971 by T. M. Smirnova at Nauchnyj.- External links :*...
was named in her honor. - Friedrich Wilhelm Struve, astronomer and geodesist, founder and the first director of the Pulkovo ObservatoryPulkovo ObservatoryThe Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory астрономи́ческая обсервато́рия Росси́йской акаде́мии нау́к), the principal astronomical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, located 19 km south of Saint Petersburg on Pulkovo Heights...
, prominent researcher and discoverer of new double stars, initiated the construction of 2,820 km long Struve Geodetic ArcStruve Geodetic ArcThe Struve Geodetic Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, through ten countries and over 2,820 km, which yielded the first accurate measurement of a meridian....
, progenitor of the Struve familyStruve familyThe Struve family were a dynasty of five generations of astronomers from the 18th to 20th centuries. Members of the family were also prominent in chemistry, government and diplomacy.-Origins:...
of astronomers - Otto Lyudvigovich Struve, astronomer and astrophysicist, co-developed a method for measurement of stellar rotationStellar rotationStellar rotation is the angular motion of a star about its axis. The rate of rotation can be measured from the spectrum of the star, or by timing the movements of active features on the surface....
, directed several observatories in the U.S.
- Otto Wilhelm von StruveOtto Wilhelm von StruveOtto Wilhelm von Struve was a Russian astronomer. In Russian, his name is normally given as Otto Vasil'evich Struve...
, astronomer, director of the Pulkovo ObservatoryPulkovo ObservatoryThe Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory астрономи́ческая обсервато́рия Росси́йской акаде́мии нау́к), the principal astronomical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, located 19 km south of Saint Petersburg on Pulkovo Heights...
, discovered over 500 double stars - Rashid SunyaevRashid SunyaevRashid Alievich Sunyaev was born in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, on March 1, 1943 to a Tatar family, and educated at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Moscow State University . He became a professor at MIPT in 1974...
, astrophysicist, co-predicted the Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect of CMB distortion
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- Gavriil TikhovGavriil Adrianovich TikhovGavriil Adrianovich Tikhov was a Belarusian astronomer.He worked as observer at the Pulkovo Observatory from 1906 until 1941...
, invented the feathering spectrograph. Was one of the first to use color filters to increase the contrast of surface details on planets
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- George VolkoffGeorge VolkoffGeorge Michael Volkoff, OC, MBE, FRSC was a Canadian physicist and academic who helped, with J. Robert Oppenheimer, predict the existence of neutron stars before they were discovered.-Early life:...
, predicted the existence of neutron stars - Boris Vorontsov-VelyaminovBoris Vorontsov-VelyaminovBoris Aleksandrovich Vorontsov-Velyaminov was a Soviet/Russian astrophysicist. His name is sometimes given as Vorontsov-Vel'yaminov....
, discovered the absorption of light by interstellar dust, author of the Morphological Catalogue of GalaxiesMorphological Catalogue of GalaxiesThe Morphological Catalogue of Galaxies ' or Morfologiceskij Katalog Galaktik, is a Russian catalogue of 30642 galaxies compiled by Boris Vorontsov-Velyaminov and V. P. Arkhipova. It is based on a close scrutiny of prints of the Palomar Sky Survey plates, and putatively complete to a photographic... - Alexander Vyssotsky, created first list of nearby stars identified not by their motions in the sky, but by their intrinsic, spectroscopic, characteristics
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- Avenir Aleksandrovich YakovkinAvenir Aleksandrovich YakovkinAvenir Aleksandrovich Yakovkin was a Russian astronomer.From 1928 to 1931 he served as director of the V. P. Engel'gardt Astronomical Observatory at Kazan University....
, notable astronomer - Ivan Yarkovsky, discovered the YORP and Yarkovsky effectYarkovsky effectThe Yarkovsky effect is a force acting on a rotating body in space caused by the anisotropic emission of thermal photons, which carry momentum...
s of meteoroidMeteoroidA meteoroid is a sand- to boulder-sized particle of debris in the Solar System. The visible path of a meteoroid that enters Earth's atmosphere is called a meteor, or colloquially a shooting star or falling star. If a meteoroid reaches the ground and survives impact, then it is called a meteorite...
s or asteroidAsteroidAsteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
s
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- Aleksandr Zaitsev, coined the term Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, conducted the first intercontinental radar astronomyRadar astronomyRadar astronomy is a technique of observing nearby astronomical objects by reflecting microwaves off target objects and analyzing the echoes. This research has been conducted for six decades. Radar astronomy differs from radio astronomy in that the latter is a passive observation and the former an...
experiment, transmitted the Cosmic CallCosmic CallCosmic Call was the name of two interstellar radio messages that were sent from RT-70 in Yevpatoria in 1999 and 2003 to various nearby stars. The messages were designed with noise resistant format and characters....
s and Teen Age MessageTeen Age MessageThe Teen Age Message was a METI message, transmitted from the Yevpatoria Planetary Radar to 6 nearby Sun-like stars during August–September 2001. Unlike the previous digital-only Messages, Arecibo-1974 and Cosmic Call 1, the TAM has complex, three-section structure with different forms of... - Yakov Zel'dovich, physicist, astrophysicist and cosmologist, the first to suggest that accretion discAccretion discAn accretion disc is a structure formed by diffuse material in orbital motion around a central body. The central body is typically a star. Gravity causes material in the disc to spiral inward towards the central body. Gravitational forces compress the material causing the emission of...
s around massive black holeBlack holeA black hole is a region of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that...
s are responsible for the quasarQuasarA quasi-stellar radio source is a very energetic and distant active galactic nucleus. Quasars are extremely luminous and were first identified as being high redshift sources of electromagnetic energy, including radio waves and visible light, that were point-like, similar to stars, rather than...
radiation, co-predicted the Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect of CMB distortion - Abram Leonidovich ZelmanovAbram Leonidovich ZelmanovAbram Leonidovich Zelmanov , was a Russian astronomer, a doctor of physical and mathematical sciences. He worked as a senior research scientist at the Sternberg Astronomical Institute in the Moscow State University. He is an eminent Soviet scientist in the field of general relativity and is...
, notable astronomer - Sergei Alexandrovich ZhevakinSergei Alexandrovich ZhevakinSergei Alexandrovich Zhevakin was a Russian astronomer.Zhevakin is credited for identifying ionized helium as the valve for the heat engine that drives the pulsation of Cepheid variable stars.-External links:*...
, identified ionized helium as the valve for the heat engine that drives the pulsation of Cepheid variableCepheid variableA Cepheid is a member of a class of very luminous variable stars. The strong direct relationship between a Cepheid variable's luminosity and pulsation period, secures for Cepheids their status as important standard candles for establishing the Galactic and extragalactic distance scales.Cepheid...
stars - Lyudmila ZhuravlyovaLyudmila ZhuravlyovaLyudmila Vasilyevna Zhuravleva is a Soviet, Russian and Ukrainian astronomer.She works at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory.She also serves as president...
, discovered a number of asteroids, ranked 43rd by Harvard University's list of those who discovered minor planets. She is credited with having discovered 200 such bodies - Felix ZiegelFelix ZiegelFelix Yurievich Ziegel was a Soviet researcher, Doctor of Science and docent of Cosmology at the Moscow Aviation Institute, author of more than 40 popular books on astronomy and space exploration, generally regarded as a founder of Russian ufology...
, author of more than 40 popular books on astronomy and space exploration, generally regarded as a founder of Russian ufologyUfologyUfology is a neologism coined to describe the collective efforts of those who study reports and associated evidence of unidentified flying objects . UFOs have been subject to various investigations over the years by governments, independent groups, and scientists...
See also
- List of astronomers
- List of astrophysicists
- List of Russian scientists
- List of Russian inventors
- Science and technology in RussiaScience and technology in RussiaScience and technology in Russia developed rapidly since the Age of Enlightenment, when Peter the Great founded the Russian Academy of Sciences and Saint Petersburg State University and polymath Mikhail Lomonosov founded the Moscow State University, establishing a strong native tradition in...
- Pulkovo ObservatoryPulkovo ObservatoryThe Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory астрономи́ческая обсервато́рия Росси́йской акаде́мии нау́к), the principal astronomical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, located 19 km south of Saint Petersburg on Pulkovo Heights...