Svetlana Gerasimenko

Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko (Russian: Светла́на Ива́новна Герасиме́нко; Ukrainian: Світлана Іванівна Герасименко) is a Soviet and Tajikistani astronomer of Ukrainian[1] origin and discoverer of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

Svetlana Gerasimenko
Svetlana Gerasimenko
Born
Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko

(1945-02-23) 23 February 1945
Baryshivka, Kiev Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
CitizenshipSoviet Union → Tajikistan
Alma materTaras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
Known forComet discovery
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy

Discovery of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
Main articles: Rosetta (spacecraft) and Philae (spacecraft)

On 11 September 1969 Gerasimenko while working at the Alma-Ata Astrophysical Institute, near Almaty, the then-capital city of Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union photographed the comet 32P/Comas Solà using a 50-cm Maksutov telescope.[2]

After returning to her home institute, Klim Ivanovych Churyumov of the Kiev 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]

Honors

Named after her

See also

References and notes
  1. "Герасименко: я открыла комету случайно". Retrieved 4 October 2016. Я украинка по отцу, полячка по маме, но осознаю себя украинкой.
  2. "Klim Ivanovich Churyumov". International Astronomical Union. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  3. 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.
  4. "Svetlana Gerasimenko - co-discoverer of comet 67P". European Space Agency.
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