Boris Vasilyevich Numerov was a Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n astronomer

Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...

, land-surveyor and geophysicist. Born in Lyuban

Lyuban

Lyuban is a town in Tosnensky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated on the Tigoda River southeast of St. Petersburg. Population: -History:...

, he created various astronomic and mineralogical instruments, as well as for various algorithms and methods that bear his name. He was a member of the Academy of Sciences, observer at Pulkovo

Pulkovo Observatory

The Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory астрономи́ческая обсервато́рия Росси́йской акаде́мии нау́к), the principal astronomical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, located 19 km south of Saint Petersburg on Pulkovo Heights...

 from 1913-1915, astronomer at the observatory of the University of Leningrad

Saint Petersburg State University

Saint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest and largest universities in Russia....

 from 1915 to 1925, and director of the Central Observatory of Geophysics (1926-7), and Professor at the University of Leningrad (1924-1937).

In 1938, Numerov visited Wallace Eckert’s lab to learn how punched card equipment might be applied to "stellar research" in his own lab at St. Petersburg University.

In 1941, he was arrested and executed. He had been accused of being a spy in the pay of Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

. The basis of this accusation rested on the fact that German astronomers had named an asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

 after him. In 1957, his memory was rehabilitated.

The crater Numerov

Numerov (crater)

Numerov is a lunar impact crater that is located on the Moon's far side, deep in the southern hemisphere. It is attached to the larger and younger crater Antoniadi to the west, and the outer rampart of Antoniadi overlies the inner wall and part of the western interior floor of Numerov...

 on the Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

 is named after him. Asteroid 1206 Numerowia

1206 Numerowia

1206 Numerowia is a main-belt asteroid discovered on October 18, 1931 by K. Reinmuth at Heidelberg. It was named after Boris Vasil'evich Numerov, a Russian astronomer and geophysicist who was executed for espionage by the Soviet Union in 1941. The accusation was based on the fact that a German...

is also named after him.

External links

• Gérard Sookahet, La Méthode de Numerov pour Résoudre les Equations Différentielles du 2nd Ordre, PDF