Vorontsov-Velyaminov Boris Olexandrovich General data:
14.02.1904 - 27.01.1994
Place of birth: Ekaterinoslav city, Ekaterinoslav province Russian Empire (since 2016 Dnipro city, Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine)
Studied in: Moscow State University (since 1940 M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University) (1921-1925);
Key interests: history of astronomy, astrophysics, extragalactic astronomy, emission nebulae, positional astronomy, Galaxy structure, nebulae and galaxies. ScD Thesis: without defending a dissertation (1935 );
Biography:
He was born on February 1, 1904 (according to the Julian calendar and 14 according to the Gregorian calendar) in Katerynoslav, Ekaterinoslav province of the Russian Empire (since 2016, Dnipro city, Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine). He belonged to an ancient boyar-noble family. The Veliaminov family has been known since the time of Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kyiv. When Moscow, with the light hand of his grandson Yuri Dolgoruky, became a city, Velyaminov was his thousandth. The second surname - Vorontsov - was attached to Velyaminov in the reign of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, so as not to forget the branch of the Vorontsov, the famous boyars, who were all killed in battle. This is how the Vorontsov-Velyaminov family appeared.
His father received a technical education and served as a railway engineer, my mother received a humanitarian and artistic education, played the piano well.
The boy received his primary school education at the 2nd Ekaterinoslav Gymnasium. Then he studied in Sevastopol city, graduated from high school in Omsk city in 1920, and finally, after the next appointment of his father, in 1921 he found himself in Moscow City. He came to astronomy from amateurs, starting to observe meteors and variable stars with his friend P. Parenago in high school. According to his own testimony, he carried his observations in Ekaterinoslav city and Sevastopol city where he often visited the Marine Observatory at Cape Pavlovsk.
It is known that in 1917-1918 he was one of the pupils of the astronomical circle at the 1st Ekaterinoslav Gymnasium, headed by the teacher of the gymnasium OA Alenich. In 1918, members of the circle began to publish a small number of copies of hectographed magazine, which published articles and abstracts, mainly on astronomical topics. By 1919, three issues were published. It was here at the age of 14 that the future astronomer published one of his first works, On the Internal Structure of the Earth. As a child he made a telescope, wrote a letter to the French astronomer N. K. Flammarion and received from him as a gift magazines and books on astronomy.
Since 1921 to 1925 he studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, majoring in astronomy, becoming a student of the university on November 10, 1921, without passing the entrance exams. In Moscow, he joined the Moscow Society of Astronomy amateurs, which in 1922 organized the Group of Observers (KOLNAB), until 1933 was its first chairman. He organized the issue of the Internationally Recognized Bulletin of KOLNAB.
By the time he graduated from Moscow State University, he was a member of Russia's first State Astrophysical Institute and worked as a "second-class employee" (junior researcher), in 1925 he became a graduate student there). During 1924-1980 (according to other sources 1931-1979) he was an employee of the P. K. Stenberg State Astronomical Institute. According to some reports, after 1979 on a voluntary basis he headed the department of extragalactic astronomy.
In April 1933, on a false denunciation, he was arrested along with a group of Moscow astronomers and spent two months in Butyrka. Young astronomers have been accused of "anti-Soviet" sentiment and, in particular, of speaking out against the party's interference in scientific work.
In 1934 he became a professor at Moscow State University.
In 1935, without defending his dissertation, he became a doctor of physical and mathematical sciences (in 1934 he was awarded the degree of doctor of sciences for a set of works).
In 1938, together with O. P. Kramer worked to determine the motion of the solar system relative to galaxies with known at that time radial velocities.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he, along with other employees of the P. K. Stenberg State Astronomical Institute, volunteered for the Moscow People's Militia, but was soon expelled for health reasons. In September 1941 he took part in an expedition to observe a solar eclipse in Alma-Ata. During the years of evacuation (1941 - 1943) he headed the department of the Institute of Physics and Astronomy, organized in Alma-Ata by Academician V. G. Fesenkov and local physicists. And after the separation of the Astrophysical Institute, a new Astrophysical Observatory was established near Alma-Ata on the high Kamyanka Plateau, and the first small office building built by Boris Alexandrovich was called "Uncle Bory's Hut".
Since 1947 he has been a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences. Since 1974 he has been an honored scientist of the RSFSR.
During 1950-1953 he headed the Department of Star Astronomy, and then created on his initiative the Department of New Stars and Gas Nebulae (now - the physics of emission stars and galaxies) at the PK Stenberg State Astronomical Institute.
During 1925-1975 he was a member of the editorial board of the multi-volume collection of historical articles "Historical and Astronomical Studies".
In 1962 he became a laureate of the F. A. Bredikhin Prize of the USSR Academy of Sciences for creating the world's first "Atlas and Catalog of Interacting Galaxies", received the medal "For the discovery of new astronomical objects" No. 1 of the Astronomical Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Also in 1954 he was awarded the Order of Lenin, diplomas of the Ministry of Education, the N. K. Krupskaya medal.
Member of the International Astronomical Union.
In 1984, the small planet №9216 was named after him Voronveliya.
He died on January 27, 1994 in Moscow.
His works are devoted to non-stationary stars, nebulae, galaxies, comets. In 1930 he first studied the distribution of gases in the comet's head, proved the rotation of the comet's nucleus. In particular, according to his hypothesis, the stars of the type P Cygnus are "unsuccessful" new: after the outbreak in 1600, P Cygnus did not return to its original state, and "stuck" in the intermediate phase. In 1933 he proposed a method for determining distances to planetary nebulae, a method for determining the temperatures of their nuclei, developed a classification of visible forms of planetary nebulae, compiled several catalogs of these nebulae. his edition in 1962 already had 600 nebulae). The results of his measurements of the brightness of stellar clusters confirmed the existence of absorption in the interstellar medium.
In 1958, the scientist first determined the mass of gas in galaxies with broad emission lines in the spectra (Seifert galaxies). Since 1958, he has discovered 1,200 galaxy systems that show shape distortion, jumpers, and tails; called them "interacting", in particular, proved that Galaxy 51 is not one but two galaxies that have a common spiral. Such a large number of double and connected galaxies pushes scientists to some pattern ... He published two atlases containing photographs of several hundred interacting galaxies (1959, 1977). Together with his collaborators, he compiled and published a detailed description of the morphology of 32,000 galaxies in 1961-1974.
Known as a traveler (discovered and described in 1927-1928 a new glacier in the Caucasus, which now has his name), the poet was fond of filmmaking and history, in particular, studied in detail the history of its kind.
Author of textbooks and manuals. He also took care of the popularization of astronomy.
Main publications:
1. Воронцов-Вельямінов Б. А. Астрономическая Москва в двадцатые годы // Историко-астрономические исследования. Москва: Наука, 1986.- выпуск XVIII. -С.345-366
2. Воронцов-Вельямінов Б. А. "О новых звездах и газовых туманностях", 1948.
3. Воронцов-Вельяминов Б.А. Газовые туманности и новые звезды. М.-Л. Изд-во АН СССР,1948. - 588 с
4. Воронцов-Вельяминов Б.А. Очерки о Вселенной 7-е переработаное и дополненное.- Москва:Наука, 1976.-720 с.
Sources:
1 Воронцов-Вельямінов Б. А. Астрономическая Москва в двадцатые годы // Историко-астрономические исследования. Москва: Наука, 1986.- выпуск XVIII. -С.345-356
2 Казанцева Л. В., Кислюк В. С. Київське вікно у Всесвіт: Історія Київської астрономічної обсерваторії в контексті історії розвитку національної та світової науки. — Київ: Наш час, 2006.—C.186
3 www.astronet.ru
4 www.astronomers.ru
