Vera Fedorovna Gaze

Gaze Crater on Venus is named after Russian astronomer Vera Fedorovna Gaze.
Credit: Lunar and Planetary Institute

Vera Fedorovna Gaze was born in December 1899 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Between 1921 and 1926, she worked at the Astronomical Institute of Leningrad and studied at the Petrograd University. Two years after graduating in 1924, she went to work at the Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory, near Saint Petersburg. Gaze was among those in Russia who witnessed a total solar eclipse in 1936 - over 30 international expeditions traveled to Russia to document the eclipse (if you've never seen a total solar eclipse before, add it to your bucket list - it is an absolutely incredible experience).

In 1940, Gaze transferred to the Simeiz Observatory which was part of the Abastumani Astrophysical Observatory of Georgia between 1941 and 1945 and then became part of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. While at the observatory, Gaze worked with its director, Grigory Abramovich Shajn, to study the structure of nebulae, with the goal of determining their size and the role of dust and gas in their formation. Over the course of her career, she discovered roughly 150 new galactic emission nebulae, and in 1952, she and Shajn published a book together called Some results of the study of diffuse gaseous nebulae and their attitude to cosmogony.

Gaze contributed greatly to the understanding of nebulae, and to honor her efforts, Gaze Crater on Venus was named after her.