Background
Boris Gerasimovich was born on March 19, 1889, in Kremenchuk, Ukraine. His father, a physician, was director of a district hospital.
Maidan Svobody, 4, Kharkiv, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, 61000
In 1910 Gerasimovich studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kharkov University, where his teachers in astronomy were the director of the astronomical observatory, Ludwig Struve, and the astrometrist N. N. Yevdokimov. He graduated in 1914.
Boris Gerasimovich
Boris Gerasimovich
Maidan Svobody, 4, Kharkiv, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, 61000
In 1910 Gerasimovich studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kharkov University, where his teachers in astronomy were the director of the astronomical observatory, Ludwig Struve, and the astrometrist N. N. Yevdokimov. He graduated in 1914.
Astronomer astrophysicist educator scientist
Boris Gerasimovich was born on March 19, 1889, in Kremenchuk, Ukraine. His father, a physician, was director of a district hospital.
Geresomovich attended the Poltava Gymnasium but did not graduate, having been expelled for participation in the revolutionary movement. Only in 1909, after passing examination as an extern, did he receive his certificate of maturity. In 1910 he studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kharkov University, where his teachers in astronomy were the director of the astronomical observatory, Ludwig Struve, and the astrometrist N. N. Yevdokimov. He received a Bachelor of Science in 1914 and passed his master’s degree examination in 1917.
In 1917 Gerasimovich became a Privatdozent at Kharkov University. From 1920 to 1933 he was senior astronomer at Pulkovo Observatory, and from 1922 he was also professor of astronomy. At the same time Gerasimovich taught mathematics and mechanics at a number of higher educational institutions in Kharkov. In 1931 he was invited to head the astrophysics section of the Pulkovo Observatory, and in 1933 he was appointed director of the observatory.
In 1924 Gerasimovich made a scientific trip to England and France, and from 1926 to 1929 he was visiting professor at Harvard Observatory, where both independently and in collaboration with Harlow Shapley, Otto Struve, Willem Luyten, and Donald Menzel he conducted a number of scientific investigations. In 1926, 1932, and 1935 Gersimovich participated in the Copenhagen Congress of the German Astronomical Society, and in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Paris sessions of the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union.
Gerasimovich’s range of scientific interests was very broad, and there are about 170 publications in his bibliography. Among them are works on photometrical and spectral research on variable stars (about eighty works), planetary nebulas, emission stars, scientific works in the field of theoretical astrophysics, stellar astronomy, the structure of the Galaxy, stellar statics, celestial mechanics, astrometry, solar physics and other problems. His research on semiregular variable stars, which he conducted on materials from the rich collection of photographic plates of the Harvard Observatory, has retained its great value.
Gerasimovich was a pioneer in the study of planetary nebulas, which are expanded throwing out at the time of the explosions of certain types of nonstationary stars. He studied the turbulent movement in gas nebulas and investigated the varied forms of the planetary nebulas as figures of equilibrium, which can accept masses of gas under the influence of the forces of gravity of the central star and the forces of light repulsion. Gerasimovich also studied the processes of ionization of planetary nebulas, determined the luminosity of their nuclei, and came to the important conclusion that the masses of their central stars are small. This hypothesis was confirmed by the later research of others.
Gerasimovich was one of the first to emphasize the important role of computation of interstellar light absorption, which weakens the visible brightness of stars and causes their teddening in the study of the structure of the Galaxy. In particular he used an original method of studying the apparent change of the mean distance of variable stars of the Cephied type from the galactic plane as a function of their distance from the sun for an estimate of the value of the interstellar absorption of light.
Gerasimovich was responsible for an important investigation of the dynamics of the stellar system as the site of the simultaneous action of regular and Milky Way and its insufficient brilliance in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius again led him to the belief in the essential role of the interstellar substratum, which forms a substantial condensation in space and at the same time causes a weakening of the brightness of the Milky Way.
With the American astronomer W. Luyten, Gerasimovich determined in 1927 the altitude of the sun over the base plane of the Galaxy as thirty-four parsecs (contemporary determinations give fifteen-twenty).
The study of the sun and the organization of and participation in expeditions to observe total solar eclipses occupied a special place in Gerasimovich’s scientific work. In the later years of his life, in addtion to the other responsibilities, he was president of the Commission for the Study of the Sun of the Astronomical Council of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and president of Sciences for the preparation of all expeditions to observe the total eclipse of 19 June 1936. This was the first eclipse of the sun for which, on Gerasimovich’s initative, the whole program’s photographic observations were organized in a unified way, using six uniform, standard coronagraphs placed along the zone of visibility of the total phase of the eclipse. As a result, very valuable data on the movement of matter in the solar corona were obtained.
Gerasimovich’s monograph Solar Physics is an excellent description of the physics of the sun, summing up the achievements of Soviet monographs, The Universe in Light of the Theory of Relativity, was of great importance in popularizing the theory of relativity and Einstein’s cosmological ideas. An outstanding role in the preparation of Soviet astronomers of the following generations was played by Course in Astrophysics and Stellar Astronomy, which contained, among other works, a number of his original articles and was published under his direction in 1934 and 1936.
Gerasimovich was elected a member of the All-Union Astronomical Geodesical Society, the American and German astronomical societies, the Royal Astronomical Society, the American Association of Observers of Variable Starts, and the International Astronomical Union.