Vasily Grigoryevich Fessenkow

Vasily Grigoryevich Fessenkow ( Russian Василий Григорьевич Фесенков ; born January 1 ^{. Jul} / 13. January  1889 ^greg. In Novocherkassk ; † 12. March 1972 in Moscow ) was a Russian astronomer , astrophysicist and university teachers .

Life

Fessenkow, the son of a math and physics teacher, was already interested in astronomy as a high school student . He built a small telescope and observed comet 15P / Finlay in 1906 . In 1907 he began studying at the physics and mathematics faculty of Kharkov University . His first scientific work in the second course was devoted to determining the parallax of the sun . Then, within 8 months, he calculated the orbit of comet C / 1908 R1 (Morehouse) using the observation data from observatories at home and abroad , for which he received a gold medal from the university. In addition to the theoretical investigations, he carried out observations in the Kharkov observatory. In 1911 he graduated with a gold medal. He stayed at the university to prepare for a professorial career. After a year he was sent to the University of Paris for a two-year study visit , where he worked as an intern at the observatory. In 1914 he defended his dissertation La lumiere Zodiacale there . At the beginning of the First World War Fessenkow returned to Russia , passed the master's examination, became a private lecturer at the University of Kharkov in 1915 and worked at the Kharkov observatory. One focus of work was the physics of the atmosphere . In 1917 he defended his master's thesis on the nature of Jupiter .

After the October Revolution and the beginning of the Russian Civil War , Fessenkow applied in Novocherkassk in 1920 for a professorship at the Polytechnic Institute and the Pedagogical Institute. There he completed his doctoral dissertation and then submitted it to the University of Kharkov. The dissertation was no longer defended because the academic degrees had since been abolished. In 1921 he organized the first astronomical expedition to the Caucasus to determine a location for an observatory. The necessary equipment was procured on Lenin's personal instructions .

In 1922 Fessenkow went to Moscow and became head of the State Astrophysical Institute, which in 1931 became the Sternberg Institute for Astronomy (GAISch). He founded the astronomical observatory Tashkent and the astronomical stations Kutschino (1925, from 1930 astronomical observatory of the GAISch) in Schelesnodoroschny and Novocherkassk. Fessenkows employees were Sergei Vladimirovich Orlov , Vladimir Alexandrovich Kostizyn and Alexander Alexandrovich Mikhailov and later Boris Vorontsov-Velyaminov , Serhiy Wsechswjatskyj , Georgi Nikolaevich Duboschin , Nikolai Dmitrievich Moiseyev , Nikolai Nikolaevich Pariski , Kirill Fedorovich Ogorodnikov , Konstantin Nikolayevich Schistowski and Yuri Naumowitsch Lipski . In 1924 Fessenkow founded the specialist journal Astronomitscheski journal , of which he remained editor-in-chief until 1964. In 1927 he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (AN-SSSR, since 1991 Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN)). In 1928 he received his doctorate in physical-mathematical sciences . In 1936 Fessenkow became director of the GAISch.

In addition to his research work, Fessenkow taught at Moscow University and headed the chair for astrophysics. He always made sure that the results of his students were published quickly, for which he was only a co-author if he had worked on them himself. In 1933 he became a professor at the chair for astronomy and in 1935 at the chair for astrophysics. In the same year 1935 he was elected a real member of the AN-SSSR at the suggestion of Aristarch Apollonowitsch Belopolskis and Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky . 1939–1941 he was academic vice secretary of the physical-mathematical department of the AN-SSSR. In the German-Soviet War he was 1941-1945 commissioner of the presidium of the AN-SSSR for the evacuated facilities of the AN-SSSR in the Kazakh SSR . In 1941 he founded the Institute of Astronomy and Physics in Alma-Ata , which in 1950 was divided into the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Astrophysics of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR . On the shores of the Great Alma Ata Lake at an altitude of 2,600 m , he founded the corona station for regular observation of the solar corona. Fessenkow led a scientific dispute with Otto Juljewitsch Schmidt about the formation of the solar system and with Gawriil Adrianowitsch Tichow about possible life on Mars and other planets . In 1946 Fessenkov became a real member of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR. He headed the Astrophysics Institute in Alma-Ata until he retired in 1964.

Fessenkov's names are the lunar crater Fesenkov , the Mars crater Fesenkov and the minor planet (2286) Fesenkov . In the Antarctic, the Nunataki Fesenkova are named after him.

Honors

• Order of Lenin (three times)
• Medal "For heroic work in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
• Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1959)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Большая российская энциклопедия: ФЕСЕ́НКОВ Василий Григорьевич (accessed January 30, 2019).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} MGU: Фесенков Василий Григорьевич (accessed on January 29, 2019).
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Н. Б. ДИВАРИ: ВАСИЛИЙ ГРИГОРЬЕВИЧ ФЕСЕНКОВ - ВЫДАЮЩИЙСЯ АСТРОФИЗИК К 100-летию со дня рождения . In: Памятные даты . S. 101-108 ( [1] accessed January 29, 2019).
4. ↑ ^{a b} RAN: Фесенков Василий Григорьевич (accessed January 29, 2019).
5. ↑ Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Fesenkov on Moon (accessed January 30, 2019).
6. ↑ Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Fesenkov on Mars (accessed January 30, 2019).