Russian astronomer, an expert on Saturn. His other work was largely concerned with features of the Solar System, although he shared the family interest in stellar astronomy.
Struve was born in Pulkovo, near St Petersburg, and studied at Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia), travelled in Europe and visited major centres of astronomical research. He began his career at Pulkovo Observatory (founded by his grandfather Wilhelm von Struve), becoming its director 1890. In 1895 he moved to Germany, first as professor at Königsberg, and from 1904 as director of the Observatory of Berlin-Babalsberg (the Neubabalsberg Observatory from 1913).
Among the many features of the Solar System studied by Struve were the transit of Venus, the orbits of Mars and Saturn, the satellites (especially Iapetus and Titan) of Saturn, and Jupiter and Neptune. Struve's 1898 paper on the ring system of Saturn formed the basis of much of his later research.