Viktor Safronov

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Viktor Sergeevich Safronov (Russian:Виктор Сергеевич Сафронов) (born Velikie Luki, Russia, October 11, 1917 - died Moscow September 18, 1999) is a Soviet astronomer who was one of the first to put forward a consistent picture of how the planets formed from a disk of gas and dust around the Sun.

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[edit] Biography and legacy

Safronov graduated from MSU Department of Mechanics and Mathematics in 1941. He defended a dissertation for the Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences in 1968. His scientific interests were planetary cosmogony, astrophysics and geophysics.

His planetesimal hypothesis of planet formation is still widely accepted among astronomers, although alternative theories exist (such as the gravitational fragmentation of the protoplanetary disk directly into planets).

A minor planet 3615 Safronov, discovered by American astronomer Edward L. G. Bowell in 1983 is named after him. [1]

[edit] Awards

[edit] List of selected publications

  • Evolution of the Protoplanetary Cloud and Formation of the Earth and the Planets. Moscow: Nauka Press, 1969. Trans. NASA TTF 677, 1972.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, 5th, New York: Springer Verlag, p. 304. ISBN 3540002383. 

[edit] External links

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