Role Astronomer Name Svetlana Gerasimenko | ||
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Native name Svіtlana Іvanіvna Gerasimenko Born Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko 23 February 1945 (age 79) Baryshivka, Kiev Oblast, Ukrainian SSR ( 1945-02-23 ) Alma mater | ||
Discovered 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko | ||
Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko (Russian: Светла́на Ива́новна Герасиме́нко; Ukrainian: Світлана Іванівна Герасименко) is a Soviet and Tajikistani astronomer of Ukrainian origin and discoverer of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
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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 a 50-cm Maksutov telescope.
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. 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. By looking through all the material collected they found this new object on four more plates, dated 9 and 21 September.
Honors
Named after her