Lyudmila Karachkina facts for kids

Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina (Людмила Георгиевна Карачкина), born on September 3, 1948, in Rostov-on-Don, is a famous astronomer. An astronomer is a scientist who studies stars, planets, and everything else in space! She is well-known for finding many minor planets. Minor planets are small objects in our solar system that orbit the Sun, but they are not big enough to be called planets.

Her Work in Space

Lyudmila Karachkina started working as an astronomer in 1978. She worked at the Institute for Theoretical Astronomy in Leningrad. Later, she did important research at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (CrAO). Her work there focused on studying minor planets. She used special methods called astrometry and photometry.

• Astrometry is about measuring exactly where objects in space are.
• Photometry is about measuring how bright these objects are.

The Minor Planet Center, which keeps track of all minor planet discoveries, says that Lyudmila Karachkina has found 130 minor planets! This is a huge number of discoveries. Among her findings are special types of minor planets:

• The Amor asteroid 5324 Lyapunov: Amor asteroids are a group of minor planets that come close to Earth's orbit.
• The Trojan asteroid 3063 Makhaon: Trojan asteroids are minor planets that share an orbit with a larger planet, like Jupiter, staying in special stable spots.

In 2004, Lyudmila Karachkina earned her Ph.D. in astronomy from Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University.

Honoring Her Discoveries

Lyudmila Karachkina has two daughters, Maria and Renata. Because of her amazing work, an asteroid was named after her! The asteroid 8019 Karachkina was discovered by two German astronomers, Lutz D. Schmadel and Freimut Börngen, in 1990.

Another minor planet, 8089 Yukar, was named after her husband, Yurij Vasil'evicht Karachkin. He was a physics teacher at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory's school. This asteroid was named in his honor in 1999.

See also

In Spanish: Liudmila Karachkina para niños

• Tamara Smirnova, another astronomer who worked at ITA.