Lyudmila Ivanivna Chernykh (; ; June 13, 1935 – July 28, 2017) was a Ukrainian-

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

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 ...

, wife and colleague of

Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh ( rus, Никола́й Степа́нович Черны́х, , nʲɪkɐˈlaj sʲtʲɪˈpanəvʲɪtɕ tɕɪrˈnɨx, links=yes; 6 October 1931 – 25 May 2004Казакова, Р.К. Памяти Николая Сте ...

, and a prolific discoverer of minor planets.

Professional career

Chernykh was born in 1935 in

Shuya, Ivanovo Oblast Shuya (, ) is the third largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Ivanovo Oblast, Russia. The town is built on the high left bank of the navigable Teza (river), Teza river, a tributary of the Klyazma river, with two suburbs on t ...

. In 1959, she graduated from the Irkutsk State Pedagogical Institute (now the Pedagogical Institute of Irkutsk State University). Between 1959 and 1963, she worked in the Time and Frequency Laboratory of the All-Union Research Institute of Physico-Technical and Radiotechnical Measurements in

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

, where she made astrometrical observations for the Time Service. Between 1964 and 1998 she was a scientific worker at the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy of the

USSR Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (u ...

( Russian Academy of Science since 1991), working at the observation base of the institute at the

Crimean Astrophysical Observatory The Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (CrAO, obs. code: 095) is located at Nauchnij research campus, near the Central Crimean city of Bakhchysarai, on the Crimean peninsula. CrAO is often called simply by its location and campus name ...

(CrAO) in Nauchnyy settlement on the

Crimean peninsula Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrai ...

. In 1998 she was promoted to senior scientific worker at CrAO. The

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Funct ...

(MPC) credits her with the discovery of 267 numbered

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

s, which she made at CrAO between 1966 and 1992. Several of these discoveries she made in collaboration with her husband and with Tamara Smirnova.

Honors

The asteroid 2325 Chernykh, discovered in 1979 by Czech astronomer

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 ...

, was named in her and her husband's honour. The official naming citation was published by the MPC on 1 June 1981 ().

List of discovered minor planets

Two of her notable discoveries are 2127 Tanya – named after Russian child diarist Tanya Savicheva, and 2212 Hephaistos, a

near-Earth object A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body orbiting the Sun whose closest approach to the Sun ( perihelion) is less than 1.3 times the Earth–Sun distance (astronomical unit, AU). This definition applies to the object's orbit a ...

of the

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

group of asteroids.

References

External links

Людмила Ивановна Черных

Parajanov Asteroid discovered by L. Chernykh
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chernykh, Lyudmila 1935 births 2017 deaths Discoverers of asteroids * People from Shuya Russian women scientists Soviet astronomers Women astronomers Ukrainian astronomers