STERNBERG, PAVEL KARLOVICH

(b, Orel, Russia, 2 April 1865; d. Moscow, U.S.S.R., 31 January 1920), astronomy, gravimetry.

The son of a petty tradesman, Sternberg became interested in astronomy as a child; at fifteen, having received a spyglass as a gift, he converted it into a telescope and began observations. After graduating from the Orel Gymnasium in 1883, he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. In his first year he began regular observations at Moscow observatory. Its director, F. A. Bredikhin, attracted Sternberg to his program of cometary research. In his final year Sternberg received the gold medal of the faculty for his paper “O prodolzhitelnosti vrashchenia Krasnogo pyatna Yupitera” (“On the Duration of Rotation of the Red Spot of Jupiter”). After graduating in 1887 with the degree of candidate in mathematical sciences, he remained at the university to prepare for an academic career. In March 1888 he became a supernumerary assistant at the observatory and subsequently participated in Bredikhin’s gravimetric expeditions in European Russia.

In 1890 Sternberg was confirmed as astronomerobserver at Moscow observatory. In 1903, after defending his thesis, “Shirota Moskovskoy observatorii v svyazi s dvizheniem polyusov” (“The Latitude of the Moscow Observatory in Relation to the Motion of the Poles”), he was awarded the master’s degree. Ten years later, for his dissertation “Nekotorye primenenia fotografii k tochnym izmereniam v astronomii” (“Certain Uses of Photography for Precise Measurements in Astronomy”), Sternberg received the doctorate in astronomy. In July 1916 he succeeded V. K. Tserasky as director of the university observatory.

Sternberg’s teaching career had begun in 1887 at the private Kreiman Gymnasium, where he taught physics until 1909. In 1890, as a Privatdozent at the University of Moscow, Sternberg gave his first course, on the general theory of planetary perturbations, which was later followed by courses in celestial mechanics, advanced geodesy, spherical astronomy, and descriptive astronomy. From 1901 to 1917 Sternberg was on the staff of the higher courses for women, organized in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kiev by groups of progressive professors in the 1870’s because tsarist law did not permit women to study at the universities. In 1914 he was elected extraordinary professor of astronomy and geodesy, and the following year he was named honored professor.

From 1905 Sternberg was an active Social Democrat (Bolshevik) and was a member of the clandestine Military-Technical Bureau, which undertook technical preparation for an armed uprising. Only after February 1917 was he openly involved in the political struggle, and in October 1917 he led the revolutionary forces of the Zamoskvoretsky district of Moscow. After the establishment of Soviet power in Moscow, Sternberg was named military commissar. Later he became a member of the Board of the People’s Commissariat of Education and was active in preparing for the reform of higher education. In the fall of 1918 he traveled to the Eastern Front as a political commissar of the Second Army, and in 1919 he covered the entire Eastern Front. Having caught a cold during the forced crossing of the Irtysh River near Omsk, he became seriously ill and was evacuated to Moscow, where after two operations he died.

Sternberg was a distinguished researcher and innovator in three fields: gravimetry, the variations of latitude in relation to the motion of the earth’s poles, and photographic astrometry.

His numerous gravimetric expeditions, lectures, and practical studies with students aided the formation of a scientific school in Moscow, which after Sternberg’s death carried out a wide-ranging gravimetric study of the Soviet Union, development of the theory, and gravimetric prospecting for useful fossils.

During many years of measuring the latitude of the Moscow observatory, Sternberg carefully and precisely investigated the motion of the poles and recommended the organization of a network of stations forming an “international service of polar altitude.” This has become the International Latitude Service.

As a pioneer in the use of photography for precise measurements of stellar position, Sternberg used the fifteen-inch double astrograph of the Moscow observatory for an extremely comprehensive study of the possibilities of the new method and the possible sources of systematic errors.

In April 1917, Sternberg was elected president of the All-Russian Congress of Astronomers. In 1931 his name was given to the astronomical institute at Moscow University, which brought together three scientific institutions, including the university observatory.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. Sternberg’s writings include “Sur la durée de la rotation de la tache rouge de Jupiter,” in Annales de l’observatoire astronomique de Moscou,2nd ser., 1 , no. 2 (1888), 91–121; “Observations faites à 1’aide du pendule à réversion de Repsold,” ibid., 2 , nos. 1–2 (1890), 94–132; “Observations photographiques de 1’étoile γ Virginis,” ibid., 3 , no. 1(1893), 120–123; “Dvizhenia zemnykn polyusov” (“The Motion of the Earth’s Poles”), in Nauchnoe slovo, 3 (1903), 112–115; “Shirota Moskovskoy observatorii v suyazi s dvizheniem polyusov” (“The Latitude of the Moscow Observatory in Relation to the Motion of the Poles”), Uchenye Zapiski Moskovskogo Universiteta, Fiz.-mat. otd. (1904), no. 22; “Application de la photographie aux mesures des étoiles doubles,” in Annales de 1’observatoire astronomique de Moscou, 2nd ser., 5 (1911), 42–71; “Nekotorye primenenia fotografii k tochnym izmereniam v astronomii” (“Some Applications of Photography to Precise Measurements in Astronomy”); Bulletin de la Société des naturalistes de Moscou for 1913, nos. 1–3 (1914), his doctoral dissertation; Kurs sfericheskoy astronomii . . . (“Course in Spherical Astronomy . . .”: Moscow, 1914), compiled by a student with the initials L. D. from lectures given by Sternberg at Moscow University in the academic year 1913–1914; Kurs opisatelnoy astronomii (“Course in Descriptive Astronomy”; Moscow, 1915), compiled by A. A. Sokolov from a course of lectures by Sternberg; “Détermination relative de la pesanteur à Moscou,” in Annales de I’observatoire astronomique à Moscou, 2nd ser., 8 , no. 1 (1925), 3–17; and “Sila tyazhesti v Moskovskom rayone i ee anomalii” (“The Force of Gravitation in the Moscow Region and Its Anomaly”), ibid., nos. 2–3 (1926), 43–83, observations of Sternberg, edited by I. A. Kazansky.

II. Secondary Literature. See S. N. Blazhko, “Pamyati P. K. Sternberga” (“Recollections of Sternberg”), in Mirovedenie, 25 , no. 2 (1936), 81–89; O. A. Ivanova, “Moskovskoe voenno-tekhnicheskoe byuro RSDRP (1906–1907)” (“Moscow Military-Technical Bureau . . .”), in Moskva v trekh revolyutsiakh (“Moscow in Three Revolutions”; Moscow, 1959); 108–127; Yu. G. Perel, ed., in S. N. Blazhko, Vydayushchiesya russkie astronomy (“Outstanding Russian Astronomers”: Moscow, 1951), 141–175; K. A. Timiryazev, “Ucheny-geroy. Pamyati P. K. Sternberga” (“A Scientist-Hero. Recollections of Sternberg”), in his Sochinenia (“Works”), IX (Moscow, 1939), 415–424; and P. G. Kulikovsky, Pavel Karlovich Sternberg, 1865–1920 (Moscow, 1965).

P. G. Kulikovsky