| see§ List of discovered minor planets |
Pelageya Fedorovna Shajn,née Sannikova (Пелагея Фёдоровна Шайн) (22 September 1894 – 27 August 1956), was a Russianastronomer in the Soviet Union, and the first woman credited with the discovery of aminor planet, at theSimeiz Observatory in 1928.[2][3] Pelageya also discovered numerousvariable stars and co-discovered theperiodic, Jupiter-family comet61P/Shajn–Schaldach. She was married to prominent Soviet astronomerGrigory Shajn.
Pelageya Shajn was born in 1894 to a peasant family in the village Ostanin located in theSolikamsky District of thePerm Governorate.[3] She was the wife of prominent Soviet astronomerGrigory Shajn, who was also her colleague at theSimeiz Observatory. Her maiden name was Sannikova (Санникова).[4][3] In 1928, she discovered the asteroid1112 Polonia, the first minor planet to be discovered by a woman.[5]
She died 27 August 1956, shortly after her husband had died on 4 August the same year.[4]
Main-belt asteroid1190 Pelagia, discovered in 1930 byGrigory Neujmin who worked at Simeiz, was named in her honor.[2] In addition the asteroid1648 Shajna was named in her and her husband's memory,[6] while the lunar craterShayn was exclusively named after her husband.[7]
Her astronomical discoveries are credited under the nameP. F. Shajn. As with her husband, her last name, "Shajn", is sometimes given as "Schajn", "Shain" or "Shayn", the latter being the modern English transliteration.[4]
Pelageya Shajn discovered 19minor planets(see list below)[1] and about 140variable stars.[8] In 1949, she also co-discovered61P/Shajn–Schaldach, aperiodic comet of theJupiter family.[9] However, the non-periodic cometC/1925 F1 (Shajn-Comas Solá; also known as Comet 1925 VI or Comet 1925a) was co-discovered by her husband rather than by her.
| 1112 Polonia | 15 August 1928 | list |
| 1113 Katja | 15 August 1928 | list |
| 1120 Cannonia | 11 September 1928 | list |
| 1121 Natascha | 11 September 1928 | list |
| 1369 Ostanina | 27 August 1935 | list |
| 1387 Kama | 27 August 1935 | list |
| 1390 Abastumani | 3 October 1935 | list |
| 1475 Yalta | 21 September 1935 | list |
| 1610 Mirnaya | 11 September 1928 | list |
| 1648 Shajna | 5 September 1935 | list |
| 1654 Bojeva | 8 October 1931 | list |
| 1735 ITA | 10 September 1948 | list |
| 1954 Kukarkin | 15 August 1952 | list |
| 1987 Kaplan | 11 September 1952 | list |
| 2108 Otto Schmidt | 4 October 1948 | list |
| 2445 Blazhko | 3 October 1935 | list |
| 3080 Moisseiev | 3 October 1935 | list |
| 3958 Komendantov | 10 October 1953 | list |
| 5533 Bagrov | 21 September 1935 | list |
