Grigory Abramovich Shajn (russian: Григорий Абрамович Шайн) (April 19, 1892 – August 4, 1956) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

. In modern

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

, his

surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

would be given as Shayn, but his astronomical discoveries are credited under the name G. Shajn. Nonetheless, his last name is sometimes given as Schayn. He earned a masters degree from

Tomsk University The National Research Tomsk State University, TSU (russian: Национа́льный иссле́довательский То́мский госуда́рственный университе́т) is a public research university located in Tom ...

in 1920. He was the husband of

Pelageya Shajn Pelageya Fedorovna Shajn, ''née'' Sannikova (Пелагея Фёдоровна Шайн) (22 September 1894 – 27 August 1956), was a Russian astronomer in the Soviet Union, and the first woman credited with the discovery of a minor planet, at ...

(Пелагея Фёдоровна Шайн) née Sannikova (Санникова), who was also a Russian astronomer. He worked on

stellar spectroscopy Astronomical spectroscopy is the study of astronomy using the techniques of spectroscopy to measure the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, including visible light, ultraviolet, X-ray, infrared and radio waves that radiate from stars and othe ...

and the physics of gaseous

nebula A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regio ...

s. Together with

Otto Struve Otto Struve (August 12, 1897 – April 6, 1963) was a Russian-American astronomer of Baltic German origins. In Russian, his name is sometimes given as Otto Lyudvigovich Struve (Отто Людвигович Струве); however, he spent most o ...

, he studied the rapid rotation of stars of young

spectral type In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their stellar spectrum, spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a Prism (optics), prism or diffraction grati ...

s and measured the

radial velocities The radial velocity or line-of-sight velocity, also known as radial speed or range rate, of a target with respect to an observer is the rate of change of the distance or range between the two points. It is equivalent to the vector projection o ...

of stars. He discovered new gaseous nebulas and the anomalous abundance of ¹³C in stellar atmospheres. He became a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1939, and was also a member of various foreign societies such as the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

. From 1945 to 1952 he was the director of the

Crimean Astrophysical Observatory The Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (CrAO, List of observatory codes, obs. code: IAU code#095, 095) is located at Nauchnij research campus, near the Central Crimean city of Bakhchysarai, on the Crimean peninsula. CrAO is often called ...

. He also discovered a few

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

s. He also co-discovered the non-periodic

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...

C/1925 F1 This is a list of parabolic and hyperbolic comets in the Solar System. Many of these comets may come from the Oort cloud, or perhaps even have interstellar origin. The Oort Cloud is not gravitationally attracted enough to the Sun to form into a ...

(Shajn-Comas Solá), also known as Comet 1925 VI or Comet 1925a. However, the periodic comet 61P/Shajn–Schaldach was co-discovered by his wife rather than by him. The crater '' Shayn'' on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

is named after him. He and his wife were also honoured by the minor planet 1648 Shajna.

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External links

;Obituaries
Obs 76 (1956) 205
(one sentence)

(one paragraph) {{DEFAULTSORT:Shajn, Grigory Abramovich 1892 births 1956 deaths Jewish astronomers Soviet astronomers Discoverers of asteroids Discoverers of comets Perm State University faculty Tomsk State University faculty Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Scientists from Odesa Jewish Ukrainian scientists

References

Further reading

External links