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
Светла́на Ива́новна Герасиме́нко Світлана Іванівна Герасименко
Svetlana Gerasimenko
Born	Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko (1945-02-23) 23 February 1945 (age 77) Baryshivka, Kyiv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Citizenship	Soviet Union → Tajikistan
Alma mater	Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
Known for	Comet discovery
Scientific career
Fields	Astronomy

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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.[2]

After returning 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]

Honors

Named after her

• Periodic comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
• Minor planet 3945 Gerasimenko

See also

• Timeline of women in science

References and notes

На других языках

[de] Swetlana Iwanowna Gerassimenko

[fr] Svetlana Guérassimenko

[it] Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko

[ru] Герасименко, Светлана Ивановна