Vashakidze

Lat: 43.6°N, Long: 93.3°E, Diam: 44 km, Depth: km, Rükl: (farside)

Mikheil Alekandres Vashakidze(August 15, 1909 - November 27, 1956) was a Georgian astronomer working in the Georgian astrophysical observatory from 1936 to 1956. He and Victor Alekseyevich Dombrovsky (September 30, 1913 – February 1, 1972) each independently discovered the polarized nature of radiation from the Crab Nebula in 1952 and 1953, which was due to the presence of a synchrotron mechanism. They worked at Byurakan Observatory. Vashakidze also created a new method for learning the distribution of the stars in space, which is now known as the Vashakidze–Oort method.
Although Vashakidze appears in the cumulative list of approved names in IAU Transactions XVB, it is not clear precisely when and where this libration zone feature name was approved. - JimMosher JimMosher

LPOD Articles

V.A.Dombrovsky, mentioned above in the biography of M.A.Vashakidze, is briefly mentioned in G.P.Konnen's book Polarized Light in Nature.

This page has been edited 1 times. The last modification was made by - tychocrater tychocrater on Jun 13, 2009 3:24 pm - afx3u2