Valentin D. Ivanov () is a Bulgarian

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 ...

working in the

European Southern Observatory The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, commonly referred to as the European Southern Observatory (ESO), is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental research organisation made up of 16 m ...

, mainly at the Paranal site. Among his primary research areas are the dynamics of

star cluster A star cluster is a group of stars held together by self-gravitation. Two main types of star clusters can be distinguished: globular clusters, tight groups of ten thousand to millions of old stars which are gravitationally bound; and open cluster ...

s, formation of

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

brown dwarf Brown dwarfs are substellar objects that have more mass than the biggest gas giant planets, but less than the least massive main sequence, main-sequence stars. Their mass is approximately 13 to 80 Jupiter mass, times that of Jupiter ()not big en ...

s, and

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first det ...

s around such objects. Valentin Ivanov and

Ray Jayawardhana Ray Jayawardhana is provost and professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University. Prior to this, from 2018 to 2023, he was the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a Professor of Astronomy at Cornell Universi ...

are two of the pioneers of the investigation of the

planemo A planetary-mass object (PMO), planemo, or planetary body (sometimes referred to as a world) is, by geophysical definition of celestial objects, any celestial object massive enough to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium, but not enough to sustain ...

s. They discovered the extremely low low mass binary Oph 162225-240515 whose components were thought for a while to be planetary mass objects (a.k.a. planemos). This discovery came just before the debate about the 2006 planet definition, and posed the problem about the distinction between

planet A planet is a large, Hydrostatic equilibrium, rounded Astronomical object, astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets b ...

s and

Background

Valentin D. Ivanov was born in the town of

Bourgas Burgas (, ), sometimes transliterated as Bourgas, is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the fourth-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, with a population of 280 000 ...

, Bulgaria in 1967. He obtained his master's degree in physics and astronomy at the

University of Sofia Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" () is a public research university in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is the oldest institution of higher education in Bulgaria. Founded on 1 October 1888, the edifice of the university was constructed between 1924 ...

in 1992. He earned a PhD degree at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

Tucson Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, U.S. in 2001. He became a fellow at the

, on La Silla and

Cerro Paranal Cerro Paranal is a mountain in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and is the home of the Paranal Observatory. Prior to the construction of the observatory, the summit was a horizontal control point with an elevation of ; now it is above sea ...

. In 2003-2014 he was a staff astronomer at the

(ESO), Paranal where he was an instrument scientist for a number of near-infrared instruments, including

SofI SoFi Technologies, Inc. (abbreviated as SoFi) is an American personal finance and financial technology company. Founded in 2011 at Stanford University, it operates as a direct bank and provides its technology platform to other financial institu ...

at the NTT,

ISAAC Isaac ( ; ; ; ; ; ) is one of the three patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith. Isaac first appears in the Torah, in wh ...

and

VISIR ''DV'' (''Dagblaðið Vísir'') is an online newspaper in Iceland published by Torg ehf. It came into existence as a daily newspaper in 1981 when two formerly independent newspapers, Vísir and Dagblaðið, merged. Early on it was one of the larg ...

at the VLT, and the wide-field camera VIRCAM mounted at the

VISTA (telescope) The VISTA (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) is a wide-field reflecting telescope with a 4.1 metre mirror, located at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. It is operated by the European Southern Observatory and started science op ...

. He moved to the ESO headquarters in 2015 where he is working at the science-grade data products group.

Science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

is Valentin's hobby. He has about thirty stories appearing in

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

and a few in various English language venues. His stories has been translated in German and Russian as well. In 2006, together with Kiril Dobrev, he has published a

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

story collection in Bulgarian. His stories in English can be found in

Letters to Tiptree Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech or none in the case of a silent letter; any of the symbols of an alphabet * Letterform, the g ...

and Life Beyond Us.

External links

Twin planemos discovery - ESO outreach

Personal homepage

BG SF Wiki

Crossroads, a story in the Bulgarian culture web magazine Public Republic (English)

How I Saved the World, a story in the anthology Dialmonds in the Sky, Ed. M. Brotheron (English)

Personal Blog (English and Bulgarian)

Qualitative classification of extraterrestrial civilizations, by Ivanov, Beamín, Cáceres & Minniti - research paper

Qualitative classification of extraterrestrial civilizations, by Ivanov, Beamín, Cáceres & Minniti - video

Books by V. Ivanov
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ivanov, Valentin 1967 births Living people Bulgarian astronomers