Dr. Irina Petrova

Name

• Canonical: Dr. Irina Petrova
• Aliases: "Petrova" in references; "the Russian astronomer" in news framing; her name becomes the "Petrova Line" (the infrared arc from Sun to Venus)

Role in the story

Russian astronomer who first spotted the unprecedented infrared line between the Sun and Venus — the discovery that names and triggers the Petrova Line / Petrova Problem. She is essentially the inciting figure of the entire crisis: her observation is the moment Earth realizes something is wrong. She does not appear as an active character in the present-day plot; she exists in news clips, memory fragments (Chapter 2's flashback to Grace seeing the news), and as the namesake on every taskforce diagram.

Personality / energy

Sober, professional, careful — a working astronomer who does not exaggerate. Her contribution is the observation itself, made with the calm rigor of someone reporting a real anomaly.

Physical description

Very sparse in summaries — she is essentially a news-image cameo. What we lock for any image where she appears:

• Russian woman, possibly mid-forties to fifties
• Slim build, not athletic
• Dark hair, possibly streaked with early gray, in a practical bun or tied back
• Pale skin, intelligent face, no ostentation
• Glasses likely

She is most likely to appear only as a televised face on a wall TV or as a pixelated press photo in a Petrova-Taskforce briefing slide. Render her most often as that — small, mediated, on a screen.

Outfit / clothing notes

• A simple lab coat over a sober blouse — the visual code of an academic astronomer
• A lanyard with an observatory or institutional ID
• Hair pulled back, glasses, no jewelry of note

Visual motifs

• A press-conference podium with microphones in the background
• A telescope dome rendered behind her, or a digital all-sky-survey image with the Petrova Line annotated in gold
• A wall TV showing her face delivering the news — Grace's classroom flashback in Ch. 2

Magic / power signature

None — human observational astronomer. Her "signature" image is a small woman at a podium with a single image behind her: a curving gold infrared streak from one bright dot to a smaller dot.

Chapter appearances

Ch. 2 flashback (news-TV cameo); referenced throughout in dialogue. Almost never a foreground figure in chapter images; will appear once in the Ch. 2 prompt.

Source references

See ../sources.md. Primary: Wikipedia, LitCharts.

Confidence

Low for face specifics — render small, mediated (on a screen), and label-coded by name and the Petrova-Line graphic behind her.