Ľudmila Pajdušáková (29 June 1916 – 6 October 1979) was a Slovak

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

. She specialized in solar astronomy, and also discovered a number of

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

s, including periodic comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková, and the non-periodic C/1946 K1 (Pajdušáková-Rotbart-Weber), C/1948 E1 (Pajdušáková-Mrkos), C/1951 C1 (Pajdušáková) and C/1953 X1 (Pajdušáková). She observed at Skalnaté Pleso Observatory and became its third director from 1958 to 1979. The

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

3636 Pajdušáková is named after her. She was married to

Antonín Mrkos Antonín Mrkos () (27 January 1918 – 29 May 1996) was a Czech astronomer. Biography Mrkos entered the University in Brno in 1938. His studies were interrupted by the onset of World War II, and in 1945 he became a staff member at the Skalna ...

. In a 1951 "Comet Notes" article in ''Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific'' ASP 63 (1951) 209 Leland E. Cunningham in discussing comet C/1951 C1 refers to her as "Miss Pajdušáková (Mrs. Mrkos)", and there was an astronomy book published in 1956 by Ľudmila Mrkosová-Pajdušáková, as well as various scientific papers under this name from approximately 1952–1958. However, their respective biographies do not seem to mention any such marriage which, after all, ended in a divorce.

References

External links

BAICz 31 (1980) 128
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pajdusakova, Ludmila 1916 births 1979 deaths Czechoslovak astronomers Discoverers of comets