The Most Famous

ASTRONOMERS from Russia

This page contains a list of the greatest Russian Astronomers. The pantheon dataset contains 644 Astronomers, 18 of which were born in Russia. This makes Russia the birth place of the 8th most number of Astronomers behind Japan, and Netherlands.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Russian Astronomers of all time. This list of famous Russian Astronomers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Russian Astronomers.

1. Nikolai Chernykh (1931 - 2004)

With an HPI of 64.48, Nikolai Chernykh is the most famous Russian Astronomer. His biography has been translated into 39 different languages on wikipedia.

Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh (Russian: Никола́й Степа́нович Черны́х, IPA: [nʲɪkɐˈlaj sʲtʲɪˈpanəvʲɪtɕ tɕɪrˈnɨx]; 6 October 1931 – 25 May 2004) was a Russian-born Soviet astronomer and discoverer of minor planets and comets at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyi, Crimea.

2. Lyudmila Chernykh (1935 - 2017)

With an HPI of 62.14, Lyudmila Chernykh is the 2nd most famous Russian Astronomer. Her biography has been translated into 36 different languages.

Lyudmila Ivanovna Chernykh (Russian: Людми́ла Ива́новна Черны́х, June 13, 1935 in Shuya, Ivanovo Oblast – July 28, 2017) was a Ukrainian-Russian-Soviet astronomer, wife and colleague of Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh, and a prolific discoverer of minor planets.

3. Sergey Belyavsky (1883 - 1953)

With an HPI of 60.89, Sergey Belyavsky is the 3rd most famous Russian Astronomer. His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Sergey Ivanovich Belyavsky (Russian: Серге́й Ива́нович Беля́вский; December 7, 1883 (Julian calendar: November 25) – October 13, 1953) was a Soviet/Russian astronomer and a discoverer of 36 numbered minor planets. His last name is also alternatively spelled Beljavskij (name under which the Minor Planet Center credits him) or Beljawskij. His first name is occasionally given as "Sergius". He was born in St. Petersburg and was a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. His field of work included astrophotometry, astrometry, and the study of variable stars. He died in Leningrad. He discovered the bright naked-eye comet C/1911 S3 (Beljawsky), also known according to the nomenclature of the time as "Comet 1911 IV" or "Comet 1911g". Belyavsky observed at Simeiz Observatory (Симеиз) in Crimea. Between 1937 and 1944, Belyavsky was the seventh director of the Pulkovo Observatory, where he succeeded Boris Gerasimovich.

4. Hermann von Struve (1854 - 1920)

With an HPI of 58.32, Hermann von Struve is the 4th most famous Russian Astronomer. His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Karl Hermann von Struve (3 October [O.S. 21 September] 1854 – 12 August 1920) was a Baltic German astronomer. In Russian, his name is sometimes given as German Ottovich Struve (Герман Оттович Струве) or German Ottonovich Struve (Герман Оттонович Струве). Hermann von Struve was a part of the famous group of astronomers from the Struve family, which also included his grandfather Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, father Otto Wilhelm von Struve, brother Ludwig Struve and nephew Otto Struve. Unlike other astronomers of the Struve family, Herman spent most of his career in Germany. Continuing the family tradition, Struve's research was focused on determining the positions of stellar objects. He was particularly known for his work on satellites of planets of the Solar System and development of the intersatellite method of correcting their orbital position. The mathematical Struve function is named after him.

5. Lyudmila Zhuravleva (b. 1946)

With an HPI of 57.51, Lyudmila Zhuravleva is the 5th most famous Russian Astronomer. Her biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Lyudmila Vasilyevna Zhuravleva (Russian: Людмила Васильевна Журавлёва, Ukrainian: Людмила Василівна Журавльова, romanized: Liudmyla Vasylivna Zhuravlova; born 22 May 1946) is a Soviet, Russian and Ukrainian astronomer, who worked at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnij, where she discovered 213 minor planets. She also serves as president of the Crimean branch of the "Prince Clarissimus Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov Foundation" (which was founded in May 1995 in Berezovo, and is not the same as the "Menshikov Foundation" children's charity founded by Anthea Eno, the wife of Brian Eno). She has discovered a number of asteroids, including the Trojan asteroid 4086 Podalirius and asteroid 2374 Vladvysotskij. Zhuravleva is ranked 43 in the Minor Planet Center's list of those who have discovered minor planets. She is credited with having discovered 200, and co-discovered an additional 13 between 1972 and 1992. In the rating of minor planet discoveries, she is listed in 57th place out of 1,429 astronomers. The main-belt asteroid 26087 Zhuravleva, discovered by her colleague Lyudmila Karachkina at Nauchnij, was named in her honour.

6. Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov (b. 1935)

With an HPI of 57.05, Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov is the 6th most famous Russian Astronomer. His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov (Russian: И́горь Дми́триевич Но́виков; born November 10, 1935) is a Russian (and former Soviet) theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist. Novikov put forward the idea of white holes in 1964. He also formulated the Novikov self-consistency principle in the mid-1980s, a contribution to the theory of time travel. Novikov moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, where he worked and taught at the Niels Bohr Institute. He returned to Russia in 2001.

7. Nikolai Aleksandrovich Kozyrev (1908 - 1983)

With an HPI of 56.93, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Kozyrev is the 7th most famous Russian Astronomer. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Nikolai Alexandrovich Kozyrev (Russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Ко́зырев; 2 September 1908 – 27 February 1983) was a Soviet Russian astronomer and astrophysicist.

8. Vladimir Kotelnikov (1908 - 2005)

With an HPI of 55.82, Vladimir Kotelnikov is the 8th most famous Russian Astronomer. His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kotelnikov (Russian: Владимир Александрович Котельников; 6 September 1908 – 11 February 2005) was an information theory and radar astronomy pioneer from the Soviet Union. He was elected a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Department of Technical Science (radio technology) in 1953. From 30 July 1973 to 25 March 1980 Kotelnikov served as chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.

9. Lyudmila Karachkina (b. 1948)

With an HPI of 55.70, Lyudmila Karachkina is the 9th most famous Russian Astronomer. Her biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina (Russian: Людмила Георгиевна Карачкина, born 3 September 1948, Rostov-on-Don) is an astronomer and discoverer of minor planets. In 1978 she began as a staff astronomer of the Institute for Theoretical Astronomy (ITA) at Leningrad. Her research at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (CrAO) then focused on astrometry and photometry of minor planets. The Minor Planet Center credits her with the discovery of 130 minor planets, including the Amor asteroid 5324 Lyapunov and the Trojan asteroid 3063 Makhaon. In 2004, she received a Ph.D. in astronomy from Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University. Lyudmila Karachkina has two daughters, Maria and Renata. The inner main-belt asteroid 8019 Karachkina, discovered by German astronomers Lutz D. Schmadel and Freimut Börngen at Tautenburg on 14 October 1990, was named in her honor (M.P.C. 35489). On 23 November 1999, the minor planet 8089 Yukar was named after her husband, Yurij Vasil'evicht Karachkin (b. 1940), a physics teacher at CrAO's school.(M.P.C. 36946).

10. Aristarkh Belopolsky (1854 - 1934)

With an HPI of 55.29, Aristarkh Belopolsky is the 10th most famous Russian Astronomer. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Aristarkh Apollonovich Belopolsky (Аристарх Аполлонович Белопольский; July 13 [O.S. July 1] 1854 – 16 May 1934) was a Russian and later Soviet astronomer. He was born in Moscow but his father's ancestors are from a Serbian town called Belo Polje. Adjunct professor since 1900, extraordinary (1903) and ordinary (1906) academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences.

People

Pantheon has 18 people classified as Russian astronomers born between 1811 and 1948. Of these 18, 3 (16.67%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Russian astronomers include Lyudmila Zhuravleva, Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov, and Lyudmila Karachkina. The most famous deceased Russian astronomers include Nikolai Chernykh, Lyudmila Chernykh, and Sergey Belyavsky. As of April 2024, 3 new Russian astronomers have been added to Pantheon including Karl Ludwig Littrow, Vera Gaze, and Lidiya Tseraskaya.