page_title: List of Russian scientists
section_title: Astronomers and cosmologists
hierarchical_section_title: List of Russian scientists / Astronomers and cosmologists
caption_attribution_description: English: Russian mathematician and physicist Alexander Friedmann
context_page_description: Karl Ernst von Baer, polymath naturalist, formulated the geological Baer's law on river erosion and embryological Baer's laws, founder of the Russian Entomological Society, co-founder of the Russian Geographical Society
  Alexander Borodin, chemist and composer, author of the famous opera Prince Igor, discovered Borodin reaction, co-discovered Aldol reaction
  Alexander Chizhevsky, interdisciplinary scientist, biophysicist, philosopher and artist, founder of heliobiology and modern air ionification, Russian cosmist
  Johann Gottlieb Georgi, naturalist, chemist, mineralogist, ethnographer and explorer, the first to describe omul fish of Baikal, published the first full-scale work on ethnography of indigenous peoples of Russia
context_section_description: Viktor Ambartsumian, one of the founders of theoretical astrophysics, discoverer of stellar associations, founder of Byurakan Observatory in Armenia
  Vladimir Belinski, an author of the BKL singularity model of the Universe evolution
  Aristarkh Belopolsky, invented a spectrograph based on the Doppler effect, among the first photographers of stellar spectra
  Fyodor Bredikhin, developed the theory of comet tails, meteors and meteor showers, a director of the Pulkovo Observatory
  Jacob Bruce, statesman, naturalist and astronomer, founder of the first observatory in Russia (in the Sukharev Tower)
  Lyudmila Chernykh, astronomer, discovered 268 asteroids
  Nikolai Chernykh, astronomer, discovered 537 asteroids and 2 comets
  Aleksandr Chudakov, co-discoverer of the Earth's radiation belt
  Alexander Friedmann, mathematician and cosmologist, discovered the expanding-universe solution to the general relativity field equations, an author of the FLRW metric of Universe
  George Gamow, theoretical physicist and cosmologist, discovered alpha decay via quantum tunneling and Gamow factor in stellar nucleosynthesis, introduced the Big Bang nucleosynthesis theory, predicted cosmic microwave background
  Matvey Gusev, the first to prove the non-sphericity of the Moon, pioneer of photography in astronomy
  Nikolai Kardashev, astrophysicist, inventor of Kardashev scale for ranking the space civilizations
  Isaak Khalatnikov, an author of the BKL singularity model of the Universe evolution
  Marian Kowalski, the first to measure the rotation of the Milky Way
  Feodosy Krasovsky, astronomer and geodesist, measured the Krasovsky ellipsoid, a coordinate system used in the USSR and the post-Soviet states
  Anders Johan Lexell, astronomer and mathematician, researcher of celestial mechanics and comet astronomy, proved that Uranus is a planet rather than a comet
  Evgeny Lifshitz, an author of the BKL singularity model of the Universe's evolution
  Andrei Linde, created the Universe chaotic inflation theory
  Mikhail Lomonosov polymath, inventor of the off-axis reflecting telescope, discoverer of the atmosphere of Venus
  Dmitri Dmitrievich Maksutov, inventor of the Maksutov telescope
  Igor Novikov, theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist, formulated the Novikov self-consistency principle in the theory of time travel
  Viktor Safronov, astronomer and cosmologist, author of the planetesimal hypothesis of planet formation
  Grigory Shayn, astronomer and astrophysicist, the first director of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, co-developed a method for measurement of stellar rotation
  Iosif Shklovsky, astronomer and astrophysicist, author of several discoveries in the fields of radio astronomy and cosmic rays, extraterrestrial life researcher
  Friedrich Wilhelm Struve, astronomer and geodesist, founder and the first director of the Pulkovo Observatory, prominent researcher and discoverer of new double stars, initiated the construction of 2,820 km long Struve Geodetic Arc, progenitor of the Struve family of astronomers
  Otto Lyudvigovich Struve, astronomer and astrophysicist, co-developed a method for measurement of stellar rotation, directed several observatories in the US
  Otto Wilhelm von Struve, astronomer, director of the Pulkovo Observatory, discovered over 500 double stars
  Rashid Sunyaev, astrophysicist, co-predicted the Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect of CMB distortion
  George Volkoff, predicted the existence of neutron stars
  Boris Vorontsov-Velyaminov, discovered the absorption of light by interstellar dust, author of the Morphological Catalogue of Galaxies
  Ivan Yarkovsky, discovered the YORP and Yarkovsky effects of meteoroids or asteroids
  Aleksandr Zaitsev, coined the term Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, conducted the first intercontinental radar astronomy experiment, transmitted the Cosmic Calls
  Yakov Zel'dovich, physicist, astrophysicist and cosmologist, the first to suggest that accretion discs around massive black holes are responsible for the quasar radiation, co-predicted the Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect of CMB distortion
  Felix Ziegel, Soviet researcher, Doctor of S
caption: Friedmann
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