IISER MOHALI

Abstract: Traditionally the sky has been observed through optical telescopes, first with the eye, and then with the help of photographic and solid-state detectors. However, our atmosphere prevents most of the radiation, e.g. Infrared, Ultraviolet, X-rays and Gamma-rays and charged particles, from celestial sources, from reaching the Earth's surface. Now we have observatories in orbit. I will give an account of how some essential knowledge of the Universe can be accessed from observatories at high altitude, or in orbit, and how Indian observatories in Space are now doing path-breaking work.

About the Speaker: Prof Somak Raychaudhury is Professor of Physics at Ashoka University. Until recently, he was the Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka University. Prior to that, he was the Director of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune. He has undergraduate degrees from Presidency College, University of Calcutta, and University of Oxford. After his PhD from the University of Cambridge, he worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, where he was also part of the team that built the Chandra X-Ray Observatory for NASA, and at the University of Birmingham, UK. Dr Raychaudhury's research involves a wide range of topics in Cosmology and Astrophysics, from the ground and from Space.