Svetlana Gerasimenko

{{Short description|Soviet and Tajikistani astronomer (1945–2025)}}

{{Infobox scientist

| native_name = {{nobold|Светлана Герасименко}}
{{nobold|Світлана Герасименко}}

| native_name_lang =

| image = Svetlana Gerasimenko Portrait.jpg

| imagesize =

| alt =

| caption = Gerasimenko in 2014

| birth_name = Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1945|2|23}}

| birth_place = Baryshivka, Kyiv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2025|4|8|1945|2|23}}

| death_place =

| citizenship = Soviet Union, Tajikistan

| fields = Astronomy

| workplaces =

| patrons =

| education =

| alma_mater = Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

| thesis_title =

| thesis_url =

| thesis_year =

| doctoral_advisor =

| academic_advisors =

| doctoral_students =

| notable_students =

| known_for = Comet discovery

| influences =

| influenced =

| awards =

| author_abbrev_bot =

| author_abbrev_zoo =

| spouse =

| partner =

| children =

| signature =

| signature_alt =

| website =

| footnotes =

}}

Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko ({{langx|ru|Светлана Ивановна Герасименко}}; {{langx|uk|Світлана Іванівна Герасименко}}; 23 February 1945 – 8 April 2025) was a Soviet and Tajikistani astronomer and discoverer of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

Early life

Gerasimenko was born in the Ukrainian SSR in 1945. She was an ethnic Ukrainian; her father was Ukrainian and her mother Polish.{{cite web|title=Герасименко: я открыла комету случайно|date=17 November 2014 |url=http://www.bbc.com/russian/science/2014/11/141117_comet_gerasimenko_interview|access-date=4 October 2016|quote=Я украинка по отцу, полячка по маме, но осознаю себя украинкой.}}

Discovery of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

On 11 September 1969 Gerasimenko, while working at the Alma-Ata Astrophysical Institute near Almaty, the then-capital city of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union photographed the comet 32P/Comas Solà using a 50-cm Maksutov telescope.{{cite web |url=http://www.iau.org/administration/membership/individual/61/ |title=Klim Ivanovich Churyumov |publisher=International Astronomical Union |access-date=8 August 2014}}

After she returned to her home institute, Klim Ivanovych Churyumov of the Kyiv National University's Astronomical Observatory examined this photograph and found a cometary object near the edge of the plate, but assumed that this was Comas Solà.{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qV4Q49x8PTsC&pg=PA241 |chapter=67P/1969 R1 (Churyumov-Gerasimenko) |title=Cometography: A Catalog of Comets; Volume 5: 1960-1982 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |first1=Gary W. |last1=Kronk |first2=Maik |last2=Meyer |display-authors=1 |pages=241–245 |year=2010 |isbn=978-0521872263}}{{cite web|url=http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/54597-svetlana-gerasimenko/|title=Svetlana Gerasimenko - co-discoverer of comet 67P|publisher=European Space Agency}} On 22 October, about a month after the photograph was taken, he discovered that the object could not be Comas Solà, because it was 2–3 degrees off the expected position. Further scrutiny produced a faint image of Comas Solà at its expected position on the plate, thus proving that the other object was a different comet. By looking through all the material collected they found this new object on four more plates, dated 9 and 21 September.

Death

Gerasimenko died on 8 April 2025, at the age of 80.[https://asiaplustj.info/ru/node/347574 Скончалась таджикский астроном Светлана Герасименко, открывшая комету 67P/Чурюмова–Герасименко] {{in lang|ru}}