Nikolay Chernykh is a renowned expert in astrometry. An unsurpassed researcher and a person in love with science. Together with his group, he discovered an incredible number of minor planets and asteroids.
Biography
In 1931 in the city of Usman (at that time it belonged to the Voronezh region, now it is the Lipetsk region) Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh was born. The family was simple, my father worked as a tractor mechanic, my mother was a bookkeeper on the farm. Kolya was humble and kind, he studied well. He loved to tinker or compose something, managed to help his parents. His mother often called him "my clever man" and supported her son's hobbies. Two more girls grew up in the family - Nina and Valentina. In ten years, the family will move to the Irkutsk region, to the village of Sheragul. Then a planned resettlement of people to Siberia was carried out, and the Cherny family fell under this program.
The father of the family died at the front in 1943, and Nikolai had to take on a significant part of the housework.
Nikolai received his school education in a regular educational institution. He found magazines and clippings of his interests somewhere and read them with enthusiasm. Once he made a telescope - no one knows where the boy got mirrors and lenses.
After leaving school, he was called up for military service, served in Port Arthur. Demobilization fell on 1954, he left the army with the rank of junior lieutenant and immediately entered the Irkutsk Pedagogical Institute.
In the fourth year, Nikolai was hired to work in the laboratory of the All-Russian Research Institute of Physical-Technical and Radio-Engineering Measurements. After that, he combined his studies with work tasks. The first entry in his work book was a mark of admission to the post of astronomer - this is how astronomers-observers were recorded then. Almost immediately he was instructed to install and master Danjon's astrolabe, make recommendations for working with it.
In his student years, Nikolai was almost immediately elected headman. The position was given for hard work and a sharp mind, and also for a fanatical passion for astronomy.
The observatory of the native institute was in decline, old devices could be repaired for months. Therefore, Nikolai was invited to observe at the Irkutsk State University. The famous Siberian astronomer A. Kaverin introduced him to the staff of the observatory and introduced him to experimental work. Observations were then carried out using the Zeiss telescope, which has now taken its place of honor in the museum of the Irkutsk university.
The 50s were rich in astronomical phenomena of a large scale. In 1956, the great opposition of Mars was recorded, in 1957 two bright comets flew by. Then there were the first launches of Soviet satellites.
Scientific activity
In 1961 Chernykh became a graduate student at the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in Leningrad. In 1963, N. Chernykh together with his wife Lyudmila went to the Crimean Observatory to track minor planets. There they were hired as junior researchers.
The work at the observatory was varied: they observed automatic interplanetary stations, performed a complex of work on laser ranging of the Moon - this is measuring distances to clarify the gravitational constant, test the theory of relativity, etc.
In 1963, Chernykh began to implement a whole range of measures for observing minor planets and comets. The work was large-scale, so the couple initiated the creation of a special working group in 1964. Lyudmila Chernykh became the leader, and Nikolai Stepanovich was responsible for the methodological work. The Crimean Group has long been the world leader in observations in this sector.
Achievements, discoveries and awards
Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh did a great job to improve the astrograph, which was used for the main observations. Under his leadership, new cadres of observers were trained - they were then enrolled in the staff of the observatory and they helped in collecting information. In the entire history of observations of minor planets, the review of the Crimean group turned out to be the most complete - it covered 80% of the planets known at that time.
Group members have discovered an incredible number of minor planets. The number of those included in the catalog is 1285, and 537 of them were discovered by N. Chernykh personally. Among the well-known in the scientific community can be noted asteroid from the group of "Trojans" Antenor, two periodic comets, asteroid Steins. In terms of the amount of accumulated information, the group of scientists in 2014 became the 31st among 1459 astronomical organizations.
In the last years of his life, Chernykh actively worked in the international Spaceguard project, which tracks near-Earth asteroids. His group received a grant from the American Planetary Society to upgrade the telescope.
More than 1200 minor planets discovered by the Crimean group have been named. This was also the maintenance of patriotism, since the names of the Heroes of the USSR, outstanding scientific and cultural figures, geographical names were chosen for the names.
Nikolai Chernykh was a member of the International Astronomical Union, the European and Eurasian Astronomical Societies.
More than 200 scientific works belong to his authorship. He co-authored three collective monographs.
Scientific adviser to the Ukrainian Environmental Academy of Sciences since 1998.
Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
Among the most significant awards:
- three medals of the Astro Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences "For the discovery of new astronomical objects";
- a badge of honor from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences;
- International Prize "Slavs";
- N. Copernicus medal of the Polish Academy of Sciences and many others.
In addition, the famous astronomer has an impressive number of certificates of honor at various levels.
A family
Nikolai Stepanovich met with his wife at the entrance exams to the pedagogical department. Since then, they have always been together. They got married in 1957 and never parted. Lyudmila Chernykh (Trushechkina) also came to Siberia as a child. After the war, her father came to build the Taishet-Lena railway. Lyudmila, who was born in the Ivanovo region, finished school in Bratsk, and came to Irkutsk to enter. For more than twenty years, Lyudmila Ivanovna occupied the second place in the world among women in terms of the number of discovered minor planets (1979-1990).
Chernykh died in 2004 in Moscow at the age of 72.
