Boris Numerov

Boris Vasilievich Numerow (Russian Борис Васильевич Нумеров; * 17 Januarjul / January 29 1891greg in Novgorod, .. ? † 15 () September 1941 in Oryol ) was a Russian astronomer and geophysicist.

Biography

Numerow was a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1913-1915 observer at the Pulkovo Observatory, 1915-1925 astronomer at the University of Leningrad, and from 1924 to 1937 professor of astronomy at the University of Leningrad.

Numerow was arrested in the night of 21 to October 22, 1936 as part of the Great Terror and sentenced to ten years in prison on May 25, 1937 on charges of espionage, sabotage and conspiracy against the Soviet government. He was accused of being a spy on behalf of Germany because the German astronomer Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth the asteroid ( 1206) Numerowia was named after him. Presumably, on 15 September 1941 he was shot in prison Oryol. He was rehabilitated in 1957.

The name Numerows also carries a 113 km diameter large lunar craters (coordinates 70 ° 42 ' S 160 ° 42' W).

Scientific Work

Numerow developed in the 1920s based on the indirect method developed by Gauss to solve the two-body problem, a method for determining orbits of celestial bodies. His special power is to have involved disturbing influences of other heavenly bodies from the outset in the calculation, while the other based on the Gaussian method methods require an intermediate step of the web improvement.

Publications

• Méthode nouvelle de la determination de Orbite et le calcul en tenant compte Ephemerides of the pertubations. , Publ de l' Observatoire de Russie 2 Astrophysique central Moscow 1923
• Sur la Determination of élements. , Bulletin de l' Inst. astron. de Leningrad 8.49. 1925
• Orbit determination by the method of variation of the heliocentric coordinates., Bulletin de l' Inst. astron. de Leningrad 10.69. 1926