Svetlana Gerasimenko

Svetlana Gerasimenko

Svetlana Gerasimenko
Native name Світлана Іванівна Герасименко
Born Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko
(1945-02-23) 23 February 1945
Baryshivka, Kiev Oblast, Ukrainian SSR
Residence Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Citizenship  Soviet Union
 Tajikistan
Fields Astronomy
Alma mater Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
Known for Comet discovery
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Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko (Russian: Светла́на Ива́новна Герасиме́нко; Ukrainian: Світлана Іванівна Герасименко), born 23 February 1945 in Baryshivka, Kiev Oblast, is a Soviet Ukrainian and Tajikistani astronomer.

Discovery of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

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 50-cm Maksutov telescope.[1]

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.[2][3] 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.[2] By looking through all the material collected they found this new object on four more plates, dated 9 and 21 September.[3]

Honors

Named after her

References and notes

  1. ↑ "Klim Ivanovich Churyumov". International Astronomical Union. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  2. 1 2 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 052187226X.
  3. 1 2 "Svetlana Gerasimenko - co-discoverer of comet 67P". European Space Agency.


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