Vasily Fesenkov

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Vasiliy Grigorievich Fesenkov (January 13, 1889 – March 12, 1972) was a Soviet Russian astrophysicist.

He was born in Novocherkassk. After graduating from the Kharkov University (1911) he entered the Sorbonne, where he defended a dissertation for the Doctor of Science degree in 1914. Fesenkov was one of founders of the Russian astrophysical institute (1923). It was later renamed to Sternberg Astronomical Institute, where he worked as a director in 1936 - 1939. In 1935 Fesenkov was elected an Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was the first to make a study of Zodiacal light using photometry, and suggested a theory of its dynamics.

He founded the Alma-Ata (now Almaty) astrophysical observatory in 1946 and was its director until his retirement in 1964. Fesenkov was also a Member of the Kazakh SSR Academy of Sciences.

He worked on cosmogony, planetary and solar system astronomy. In 1947 he travelled to the site of the Tunguska event and estimated the mass and orbit of the impact body. He did the same for the Sikhote-Alin Meteorite that fell in 1947.

Fesenkov was awarded three Orders of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner and various medals. Craters on Mars and the Moon are named in his honor.

He died in Moscow.

[edit] Bibliography

Life in the universe by A. Oparin and V. Fesenkov, New York, Twayne Publishers, 1961
Soviet IGY studies in zodiacal light by Fesenkov V.G., New York, U. S. Joint Publications Research Service, 1959