Grigory Abramovich Shajn

Who was Grigory Abramovich Shajn?

Grigory Abramovich Shajn was a Soviet/Russian astronomer. In modern English transliteration, his surname would be given as Shayn, but his astronomical discoveries are credited under the name G. Shajn. Nonetheless, his last name is sometimes given as Schajn.

He was the husband of Pelageya Shajn née Sannikova, who was also a Russian astronomer.

He worked on stellar spectroscopy and the physics of gaseous nebulas. Together with Otto Struve, he studied the rapid rotation of stars of young spectral types and measured the radial velocities of stars. He discovered new gaseous nebulas and the anomalous abundance of ¹³C in stellar atmospheres.

He became a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1939, and was also a member of various foreign societies such as the Royal Astronomical Society. From 1945 to 1952 he was the director of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory.

He also discovered a few asteroids. He also co-discovered the non-periodic comet C/1925 F1, also known as Comet 1925 VI or Comet 1925a. However, the periodic comet 61P/Shajn-Schaldach was co-discovered by his wife rather than by him.