Vasiliy Grigorievich Fesenkov (Russian:Василий Григорьевич Фесенков, 13 January 1889 – 12 March 1972) was aSovietRussianastrophysicist.
He was born inNovocherkassk. After graduating from theKharkov University (1911) he entered theSorbonne, where he defended a dissertation for theDoctor of Science degree in 1914; in between he interned at the Paris, Meudon, and Nice observatories.[1] Fesenkov was one of founders of the Russian astrophysical institute (1923). It was later renamed toSternberg Astronomical Institute, where he worked as a director in 1936 - 1939. In 1935 Fesenkov was elected anAcademician of theUSSR Academy of Sciences. He was the first to make a study ofZodiacal light usingphotometry, and suggested a theory of its dynamics.
He founded theAstrophysical Institute in Alma-Ata (currently Almaty) and was its director until his retirement in 1964. Fesenkov was also a member of theKazakhstan Academy of Sciences.
He worked oncosmogony,planetary andSolar System astronomy. In 1947 he travelled to the site of theTunguska event and estimated the mass and orbit of the impact body. He did the same for theSikhote-Alin Meteorite that fell in 1947.
Fesenkov was awarded threeOrders of Lenin,Order of the Red Banner and various medals. The lunar craterFesenkov is named after him, as is a crater on Mars.Aminor planet2286 Fesenkov discovered in 1977 bySoviet astronomerNikolai Stepanovich Chernykh is named after him.[2]
He died inMoscow.
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