Vladimir Georgiev Shkodrov (Владимир Георгиев Шкодров; 10 February 1930 – 31 August 2010) was a

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 ...

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 ...

and professor at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He is one of the founders of the Bulgarian National Observatory in Rozhen and authored numerous scientific and popular articles and books on planetary physics and astronomy. Shkodrov discovered seven

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 ...

s, including the

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 ...

4486 Mithra, which he and

Eric Elst Eric Walter Elst (30 November 1936 – 2 January 2022) was a Belgian astronomer at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle and a prolific discoverer of asteroids. The Minor Planet Center ranks him among the top 10 discoverers of minor planets wi ...

discovered on 22 September 1987. Mithra is notable as the most highly bifurcated object in the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

. Besides his rich scientific career, Vladimir Shkodrov was involved in education and in politics. He was the dean of the University of Shumen and a deputy in the 37th National Assembly of Republic of Bulgaria.

List of discovered minor planets

Dissertation

Shkodrov, Vladimir (1975) ''Issledovanie pogreshnosti gravimetricheskih metodov opredelenia vneshnego potenciala planeti'' (Analysis of the errors of the gravimetric methods in defining the external planet potential). Defended in Leningrad/Moscow's State Institute for Astronomy.

Honors

The main-belt asteroid 4364 Shkodrov, discovered by

Eleanor Helin Eleanor Francis "Glo" Helin (née Francis, 19 November 1932 – 25 January 2009) was an American astronomer. She was principal investigator of the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (Some sources gi ...

and

Schelte Bus Schelte John "Bobby" Bus (born 1956) is an American astronomer and discoverer of minor planets at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaiʻi and deputy director of NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) at the Mauna Kea Obser ...

on 7 November 1978, is named in his honor. The official naming citation was published by 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 ...

on 25 August 1991 ().

Publications

Monographs

* Shkodrov, Vladimir (1973) ''Malki planeti v slunchevata sistema'' (Small planets in the Solar system). Sofia: Nauka i izkustvo * Shkodrov, Vladimir (1989) ''Planeten potencial'' (Planetary Potential). Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. * Shkodrov, Vladimir (2005) ''Planetarna fizika'' (Planetary physics). Shumen: Shumen University Press. * Shkodrov, Vladimir (2010) ''Etudi po istoria na astronomiata'' (Essays on History of Astronomy). Sofia: Prof. Marin Drinov

Other publications

* Shkodrov, V. & V. Ivanova, V. Umlenski, E. Dikova (1985) ''Haleevata kometa na put kum sluntseto'' (The comet of Halley on its way to the Sun). Sofia: Narodna prosveta.

References

External links

Homepage
archived
4486 Mithra
at hohmanntransfer.com 1930 births 2010 deaths 20th-century astronomers Bulgarian astronomers Discoverers of asteroids * People from Lom, Bulgaria {{Europe-astronomer-stub