AASTRO Thiruvananthapuram had its monthly session on September 29 at its usual venue of Science and Technology Museum. Session based on Stephan Hawking's latest book 'Thae Grand Design' was handled by Shri. Ramesh. He introduced the book chapter by chapter so that it gets benefited to those who are yet to read the book. He also took care to present a critical review on his on behalf.
Category Archives: Astronomers & Scientists
Talk on Hawking’s Grand Design
ഭൗതികശാസ്ത്ര നൊബേല് പ്രപഞ്ചവികാസ വേഗത്തിന്
പ്രപഞ്ച വികാസത്തിന്റെ വേഗം വര്ധിച്ചുകൊണ്ടേയിരിക്കുകയാണെന്ന് കണ്ടെത്തിയ മൂന്നു ഗവേഷകര് ഈ വര്ഷത്തെ ഭൗതികശാസ്ത്ര നൊബേല് കരസ്ഥമാക്കി. അമേരിക്കയില് നിന്നുള്ള സോള് പേള്മറ്ററും ആഡംറീസും ഓസ്ട്രേലിയയില് നിന്നുള്ള ബ്രയാന് ഷ്മിഡറ്റും ഒരു കോടി സ്വീഡിഷ് ക്രോണറി (7. 13 കോടി രൂപ) ന്റെ സമ്മാനത്തുക പങ്കുവെക്കും. സൂപ്പര്നോവയെന്നു വിളിക്കുന്ന നക്ഷത്രസ്ഫോടനങ്ങളെ നിരീക്ഷിച്ച് ഇവര് നടത്തിയ ഗവേഷണം മഹാവിസ്ഫോടനത്തിലൂടെ ജന്മമെടുത്ത പ്രപഞ്ചം അന്നുമുതല് വികസിച്ചുകൊണ്ടേിയിരിക്കുകയാണെന്ന സിദ്ധാന്തം ശരിവെക്കുന്നതായിരുന്നു. എന്നാല്, ഈ വികാസത്തിന്റെ വേഗം കൂടിക്കൂടിവരികയാണെന്ന ഞെട്ടിക്കുന്ന വസ്തുതയും അവര് ശാസ്ത്രലോകത്തെയറിയിച്ചു.
ഇന്ധനം തീരുന്ന നക്ഷത്രം ഗുരുത്വാകര്ഷണം മൂലം അതിദ്രുതം പൊട്ടിയമരുന്ന അവസ്ഥയാണ് സൂപ്പര്നോവ. എല്ലാ സൂപ്പര്നോവകളുടെയും സ്ഫോടന തീവ്രത ഏറെക്കുറെ സമാനമാണ്. അതുകൊണ്ടുതന്നെ ഭൂമിയില് നിന്നു ദൃശ്യമാകുന്ന പ്രകാശമാനം അവയിലേക്കുള്ള അകലത്തിന്റെ സൂചകമായെടുക്കാം. പ്രകാശരാജിയിലെ വര്ണവ്യത്യാസത്തില് നിന്ന് എത്രവേഗത്തിലാണവ നീങ്ങുന്നതെന്നും മനസ്സിലാക്കാം. കൂടുതല് ദൂരത്തിലുള്ള സൂപ്പര്നോവകള് അടുത്തുള്ളവയെ അപേക്ഷിച്ചു മന്ദഗതിയിലാണ് നീങ്ങുന്നത് എന്നായിരുന്നു അതുവരെയുള്ള ധാരണ. എന്നാല്, ദൂരം കൂടുന്നതിനനുസരിച്ച് അവ അകലുന്നതിന്റെ വേഗവും കൂടിവരികയാണെന്ന് മൂന്നു ഗവേഷകരും കണ്ടെത്തി. പ്രപഞ്ചം വികസിക്കുന്നതിന്റെ വേഗം കൂടിക്കൂടി വരികയാണ് എന്നാണതിന്നര്ഥം. പ്രപഞ്ച വിജ്ഞാനീയത്തില് വഴിത്തിരിവായി മാറിയ ഈ കണ്ടെത്തല് അസ്വസ്ഥ ജനകമായ ചോദ്യങ്ങള്ക്കും അതിനുത്തരമായി പുതിയ സിദ്ധാന്തങ്ങള്ക്കും വഴിയൊരുക്കി. അതിവേഗം വികസിച്ചുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്ന പ്രപഞ്ചം സാന്ദ്രത നന്നെ കുറഞ്ഞ് തണുത്തുറഞ്ഞ ശൂന്യതയായി അവസാനിക്കാനുള്ള സാധ്യതയെക്കുറിച്ച് അതോടെയാണ് ശാസ്ത്രജ്ഞര് ചിന്തിച്ചുതുടങ്ങിയത്. പ്രപഞ്ച ഗോളങ്ങള് വികസിച്ച് അകലുമ്പോഴുണ്ടാകുന്ന പ്രാപഞ്ചിക ശൂന്യതയില് ശ്യാമദ്രവ്യം എന്ന അജ്ഞാത പദാര്ഥം വന്നു നിറയുമെന്ന സിദ്ധാന്തമായിരുന്നു അടുത്തത്. ഗുരുത്വാകര്ഷണത്തെ അതിജീവിച്ച് ആകാശ ഗോളങ്ങളെ ഇങ്ങനെ വലിച്ചകറ്റുന്നത് ശ്യാമോര്ജമാണെന്ന ആശയം അതൊടൊപ്പം വന്നു. ഇപ്പോഴത്തെ സിദ്ധാന്തമനുസരിച്ച് പ്രപഞ്ചത്തിന്റെ 70 ശതമാനവും ശ്യാമോര്ജമാണ്. 25 ശതമാനം ശ്യാമദ്രവ്യമാണ്. അഞ്ചു ശതമാനം മാത്രമാണ് നമുക്കറിയാവുന്ന പദാര്ഥങ്ങള്. ബെര്ക്ക്ലിയിലുള്ള കാലിഫോര്ണിയ സര്വകലാശാലയിലെ സോള് പേള്മറ്റര് (52) 1988-ല് തുടങ്ങിയ സൂപ്പര്നോവ കോസ്മോളജി പദ്ധതിയുടെ തലവനാണ്. ഓസ്ട്രേലിയന് നാഷണല് യൂണിവേഴ്സിറ്റിയിലെ റീസും(41) ജോണ്സ് ഹോപ്കിന്സ് യൂണിവേഴ്സിറ്റി ഓഫ് സ്പേസ് ടെലിസ്കോപ്പ് സയന്സ് ഇന്സ്റ്റിറ്റിയൂട്ടിലെ ഷ്മിഡറ്റും(44) 1994-ല് സമാന ഗവേഷണവുമായി ഹൈ-സെഡ് സൂപ്പര്നോവ സെര്ച്ച് ടീമിന്റെ ഭാഗമായി. പ്രപഞ്ചവിജ്ഞാനീയത്തില് വഴിത്തിരിവായി മാറിയ ഞെട്ടിക്കുന്ന കണ്ടെത്തലായിരുന്നു ഇതെന്ന് നൊബേല് സമ്മാന ജൂറി വിലയിരുത്തി
Galileo documents to be shown for first time
Documents on the 17th century trial of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei and and Britain's 16th century monarch King Henry XIII will now be exhibited outside the Vatican for the first time.
The exhibition marking the Vatican Secret Archive's 400th anniversary will showcase around 100 documents at Rome's Capitoline Museum from February next year.
The show titled 'Lux in Arcana: The Vatican Secret Archives Revealed' will run till September.
'The inherent richness of this exhibition is amplified by the fact that it is being organised outside the Vatican, on the Capitol Hill which symbolically represents the heart of Rome and its relationship with the papal city down the centuries,' said Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Secretary Tarcisio Bertone.
The exhibit will include documents from World War II-era pontiff Pope Pius XII.
The archive was founded in the early 17th century and contains 84 km of shelves holding papal correspondence, state papers, books and records of ancient Christianity.
Eminent Indian Astrophysicist Venkataraman Radhakrishnan Passes Away
Eminent astrophysicist Venkatraman Radhakrishnan, who is known for his work on pulsars, passed away.He was an internationally renowned scientist and was an Emeritus Professor of the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, where he had been Director from 1972 to 1994.
He was known for his work on pulsars and and the structure of interstellar medium.He was also much indulged in designing and fabricating ultra light aircraft and sailboats. In fact, over the last few months Professor Radhakrishnan embarked on a worldwide voyage in a yacht designed by him.
Professor Radhakrishnan was born in Tondaripet, a suburb of Madras. His earlier schooling was in Madras. Then he had received his B.Sc.(Hon) from Mysore University. He started his research career as a research scholar at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and thereafter was in the research faculties of various world famous institutes. He worked in the Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden as a Research Assistant during 1955-58. He was a Senior Research fellow of the California Institute of Technology, USA before joining the Radiophysics Division of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Sydney, Australia initially as the Senior Research Scientist and later as the Principal Research Scientist. He returned to India in 1972 and took up the task of rebuilding the Raman Research Institute as it’s Director. During his tenure as the Director of the Raman Research Institute between 1972 –1994 he built up an international reputation for work in the areas of pulsar astronomy, liquid crystals and other areas of frontline research in Astronomy. The University of Amsterdam conferred the most prestigious Doctor Honoris Causa degree on Prof. Radhakrishnan in 1996.
Radhakrishnan was one of the most respected Radio Astronomers in the world during his time, in that he was associated in one capacity or other with the world’s biggest radio telescopes. He was the member of the Foreign Advisory Committee for the Netherlands Foundation for Radio Astronomy, Steering Committee of the Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Australia, Advisory Committee for the Green Bank Radio Telescope, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, USA He was also the Member of the Governing Council of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad and the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics. During the period of 1973 – 1981 he was a member of the Indian National Committee for Astronomy.
Radhakrishnan was selected to various scientific bodies, both national and international. He was a Foreign Fellow of both the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Science Academy. He was an Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society and a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore
V. Radhakrishnan had been associated with the field of radio astronomy practically from the beginning of its phenomenal post- World War II growth in the 1950s. He was one of the persons who founded the science of observational astronomy in India. His career had been truly international, starting in Sweden in 1954 and proceeding via CalTech and CSIRO, Sydney to Bangalore where he spent the last thirty three years.
Starting with the electronics of receivers, he moved on to technically innovative and astronomically far-reaching studies of the polarization of the radio waves. These include the detection of radio waves from the Van Allen like belts surrounding Jupiter and the first determination of the true rotation of the core of Jupiter. He was also the first in systematic application of interferometry to polarized brightness brightness distributions and an early study of the Zeeman effect in the 21cm line emitted by a hydrogen atom. His measurements of polarization of Vela Pulsar were decisive in establishing the picture of a magnetized rotating neutron star and led him to propose the paradigm of curvature radiation from polar caps of neutron stars which has dominated the subject of pulsar emission mechanisms since that time.
The period of his stay in Australia also marked his leadership of an extensive survey of the absorption and emission of 21 cm line radiation by neutral hydrogen which later helped to develop the realistic model of the interstellar medium. He also carried out systematic interferometric study of 21 cm absorption towards a large number of galactic and extragalactic sources. His detailed observational and theoretical work on different aspects of pulsars is truly pioneering in the field of Pulsar Astronomy.
According to his colleagues in different international institutes, each world renowned for their contributions in the field of astronomy & astrophysics, although Prof. Radhakrishnan has a number of important discoveries to his credit, his main impact on astronomy had been in his effect in other people’s research through discussion of the astronomical and technical problems and practical assistance with the later. He was one of the most devoted and perceptive physicists only satisfied with deep understanding of any concept and his interest increases with the strangeness or significance of the phenomenon. He was uninterested in mundane repetitions of other people’s work and searches for new breakthroughs.
It was not only in the field of astronomy that Prof. Radhakrishnan kept his mark but also in the designing and fabricating hang-gliders, micro-light aircraft and sailboats. His original contributions in these fields were acknowledged by the Government of India by way of support from the Aeronautics Research Development Board, Ministry of Defence (for designing hang-gliders) and ISRO (for sailboats).
He worked tirelessly in making the Raman Research Institute a world renowned center of excellence in astronomy research. The institute became well known due to his efforts to sustain a unique free and open working atmosphere with emphasis on fostering young talents in an informal and friendly setting and giving it all facilities and encouragement. He sought to lower barriers between theory and experiment, scientific and technical staff, between physicists and astronomers or staff members and students. This approach, unprecedented not only in the country but perhaps in the rest of the world as well, required his personal attention to every detail in the running of the institute. He was instrumental and closely involved with the construction of the 10.4 metre millimeter wave radio antenna in the Institutes which has been used to study various astrophysical phenomena producing original contributions in pulsar astronomy as well as recombination line studies of the interstellar medium.
He made important contributions in various other areas and was deep and profound in the human aspects of his personality. Deuterium abundance in the galaxy, Astrophysical Raman Masers, OH emission from clouds and later on building of the low frequency telescopes at Gauribidanur and Mauritius were some of the hallmarks of his career.
He was invited to deliver the prestigious Milne Lecture in Oxford in 1987, and also gave the extremely prestigious Jansky Lecture in 2000.Prof. Radhakrishnan’s contribution to science in general and astronomy in particular was exceptional. His observations and theoretical insights helped the community in unraveling many mysteries surrounding pulsars, interstellar clouds, galaxy structures and various other celestial bodies.AASTRO want to share our CONDOLENCES to his family and we realize we lost a great personality who avoided riding on his father C.V. Raman's fame.Professor Radhakrishnan is survived by his wife Francoise-Dominique and son Vivek Radhakrishnan.
Create your own star map
Many people ask where can they get a starmap to observe and locate objects in the sky. Some newspapers and magazines publish starmaps which are supposed to be used on a particular day at a particular point of time. As the celestial objects change their position in the sky as time elapses, we have to assume (or predict) their positions at other points of time. Beginners often find it difficult to imagine this shift in position on the celestial sphere. Here we give the link to a website which creates you the starmap of any time of any day observed from any place on earth.
Your Sky is a website which provides you option to create a starmap at the time of your convenience. Just click to go there. You will see a field where you can enter the latitude-longitude of your place. When you click 'make sky map', you will be directed to a page where you will see a skymap and and options to change your preferences. You can specify your time and date of convenience, the objects you want to be displayed in your sky map, the size and colour mode of the map and you will also get the corresponding ephemeris. Just take a print-out and enjoy the sky
AASTRO Kottakkal commemorates Bhabha,the renowned Indian scientist
October 30th is the 101st birthday of Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, a man who throughout his life dominated both the scientific and policy spheres of India's nuclear affairs, first bringing the Indian nuclear program to life and then setting its priorities and direction.
AASTRO Club,Kottakkal is all set to make this occasion memorable by organising a photo exhibition,a quiz programme and releasing a newsletter on him.
Bhabha was born in 1909, of a wealthy well connected Parsi family.In 1927, he sailed to England to study engineering at Cambridge. He soon decided that his true interest was in nuclear physics, a field then flowering with Cambridge as one of its centers. Bhabha received a Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge University in 1935, studying the physics of cosmic rays. While in Europe he met many of the greatest physicists of the day, who would later play major roles in the US-UK wartime atomic weapon programs -- among them Niels Bohr, James Franck, and Enrico Fermi. Bhabha was well respected within the international physics community, and has left his name associated with the phenomenon of Bhabha electron scattering. One of Bhabha's friendships at Cambridge would later play a prominent role in the development of India's nuclear program - his friendship with his rowing teammate W.B. Lewis, later chairman of the Canadian Energy Programme.
Bhabha learned of the discovery of fission while abroad. He returned to India in 1939, taking the post of Reader in Theoretical Physics at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore under Nobel laureate Sir C.V. Raman.Bhabha showed an immediate visionary interest in nuclear technology, apparently independently detecting the existence of the Manhattan Project during the war by noticing the absence of publications from the leading physicists with which he was acquainted. In March 1944, even before the successful achievement of a chain reaction became publicly known, Bhabha wrote a proposal to the Tata Trust that led to the establishment of an institute for nuclear research in India. This institute, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) named for Bhabha's uncle, was created on 19 December 1945 in Mumbai with Dr. Bhabha as its Director. And so from the very outset, only four months after Hiroshima and years before India became an independent nation, Bhabha was already in command of India's nuclear future. And so he remained until the moment of his death over 20 years later.
Bhabha was acquainted with India's first Prime Minister Jawarhalal Pandit Nehru, having met him on the voyage home in 1939. After Nehru became the new nation's first leader Bhabha was entrusted with complete authority over all nuclear related affairs and programs and answered only to Nehru himself, with whom he developed a close personal relationship. All Indian nuclear policy was set by unwritten personal understandings between Nehru and Bhabha.
From the outset Bhabha's plans for India where extraordinarily ambitious. In April 1948 Nehru agreed to legislate at Bhabha's request the Atomic Energy Act in the Constituent Assembly, creating the Indian Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC).On 3 January 1954 the IAEC decided to set up a new facility - the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET), later to become the "Indian Los Alamos". On 3 August 1954 the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was created with Dr. Bhabha as Secretary. This department answered directly to the Prime Minister and has continued to do so down to the present day.
Bhabha personally recruited and sponsored many of the principal players in the successful efforts to develop and test nuclear weapons such as Homi Sethna, P.K. Iyengar, Vasudev Iya, and Raja Ramanna.Although Nehru founded the non-aligned movement, and generally promoted disarmament efforts, he actually opposed complete abolition of nuclear weapons, and supported Bhabha's plans for developing an Indian nuclear weapons option.
In 1955 Bhabha's personal relationsip with Lewis was instrumental in the program to build Cirus, the Canadian heavy water reactor - ostensibly for peaceful research but desired by India for its potential as an ideal system for producing weapons grade plutonium, a capability later exploited.The power that Bhabha held is no where more sharply illustrated by the fact that in the wake of China's first nuclear test PM Lal Bahadur Shastri, Nehru's successor, found it necessary to align his policies with the preferences of Dr. Bhabha, and secure his personal endorsement to withstand legislative and public criticism.The earlier pattern of Bhabha and the Prime Minister privately setting Indian nuclear policy, which had been established under Nehru, continued under Shastri.
Dr. Homi Bhabha was killed while on a trip to Europe when the plane in which he was flying collided with Mount Blanc. India's impressively large nuclear establishment was suddenly left without any plan or policy to give it direction.On January 1967, the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay -- India's premier nuclear center, and weapon development laboratory --was renamed to be the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
More details on his remembrance programmes can be obtained from the organisers
v s/AASTRO
Its the birth Centenary of a legend – Dr.Subramanyam Chandrasekhar
Coming October 19th is celebrated as the 100th birthday of Dr. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (October 19, 1910 – August 21, 1995), the Nobel laureate Indian American astrophysicist. Chandrasekhar was tutored at home initially through middle school. Later he attended the Hindu High School, Madras and then he studied at Presidency College, Chennai. In 1930, Chandrasekhar went to pursue his graduate studies at the University of Cambridge with a Government of India scholarship and became a research student of Professor R. H. Fowler. In 1933, Chandrasekhar was awarded his Ph.D. degree at Cambridge.
After studies, he was recruited as Assistant Professor in University of Chicago.He studied stellar structure, including the theory of white dwarfs and subsequently focused on stellar dynamics. Next, he concentrated on the theory of radiative transfer and the quantum theory of the negative ion of hydrogen. Then he studied the equilibrium and the stability of ellipsoidal figures of equilibrium, and also general relativity. He also studied the mathematical theory of black holes, and, finally, during the late 80s, he worked on the theory of colliding gravitational waves.
During his last years Chandrasekhar worked on a project devoted to explaining the detailed geometric arguments in Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica using the language and methods of ordinary calculus and published the book Newton's Principia for the Common Reader, in 1995.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his studies on the physical processes important to the structure and evolution of stars. The first Indian scientist to win a Nobel Prize, Sir C. V. Raman was his paternal uncle.
Chandrasekhar was an honorary member of the . He also served as the editor of the .
He died of heart failure in Chicago in 1995.
AASTRO will be organising various events commemorating Dr.Chandrashekhar through out the state.detailed info can be accessed from District Chapter co-ordinators
WORLD SPACE WEEK 2010
World Space Week is observed annually from October 4 to October 10 as announced by the United Nations General Assembly and has been considered as an International Celebration of Science and Technology. This day is observed for its contribution to the improvisation of the human condition. World Space Week is supported by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs with the assistance of World Space Week Association, an NGO.
Each year World Space Week commemorates this week with a mission to encourage, educate and commemorate space exploration across the world through various programs and events centered at a specific theme. For 2008 that theme was "Exploring the Universe", and for 2009 it was "Space for Education.".
The theme for World Space Week 2010 is "Mysteries of the Cosmos."
Throughout history, humans have looked to the heavens and wondered about the universe and our place within it. Today, we are learning much about our universe but, with each answer comes more questions. Not only do the questions deal with the nature of the galaxies and stars, but the nature of life itself. This year World Space Week is a time to probe what we know, what it means, and what we have yet to learn about the mysteries of the cosmos.
World Space Week is a transnational observance of space science and the mileages enjoyed by the human race in terms of space-related technology. Objectives were encouraging public in space exploration, educating children, and promoting international coordination in space-related endeavors.The first World Space Week, held in 2000, was commemorated in 31 countries. The event has grown gradually with 54 countries participating in the year 2009. Participants come from every continent excluding Antarctica.
We have come a long way since the inception of human race, but we are still oblivious of the immense secrets and facts the space and astronomy holds in store for us, which will take years for us to explore.
Let’s celebrate and move a pace ahead towards the next level of development and our destination to explore even new aspects and facets of milky space in 2010, the New Year, which has already ushered in our lives with yet more hopes and with new enthusiasm.
v s / AASTRO
Commemorating Vainu Bappu,architect of the revival of astronomical studies in India
Today,August 10th is the birthday of Manali Kallat VAINU BAPPU, who was a great astronomer and president of the International Astronomical Union. Being one of the greatest astronomers of India, Vainu has contributed much to the revival of optical astronomy in Independent India. Vainu was born on August 10, 1927 . He was the only child of Manali Kukuzhi and Sunanna Bappu. Vainu Bappu was not only excelled in studies but took active part in debates, sports and other extra curricular activities. However astronomy to which he was exposed from an early age became his passion. Being a keen amateur astronomer, even as an undergraduate, he had published papers on variable star observations. After getting his Masters degree in physics from Madras University, Vainu Bappu joined the prestigious Harvard University on a scholarship.
Within a few months of his arrival at Harvard University, Bappu discovered a comet and it was named Bappu-Bok-Newkirk after him and his colleagues Bart Bok and Gordon Newkirk. He completed his Ph D in 1952 and joined the fellowship. He and Colin Wilson made an important observation about the luminosity of particular kind of stars. This important observation came to known as the Bappu-Wilson effect and is used to determine the luminosity and distance of these kinds of stars. He came back to India in 1953 and played a major role in building the Uttar Pradesh State Observatory in Nainital. In 1960, he look over a as the director of the kodaikanal observatory and contributed a lot in the modernization of it. In 1986, he established the observatory with a powerful telescope in Kavalur, Tamilnadu.
He was awarded the "Donhoe Comet Medal" by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 1949. He was elected as the President of the International Astronomical Union in 1979. He was also elected as the Honorary Foreign Fellow of the Belgium Academy of Sciences and was an Honorary Member of the American Astronomical Society. He died on 19 August 1982 but his name will always be remembered in the history of modern indian astronomy. He was the first indian astronomer whose name had tagged to a comet bappu-bok-new kirk.
The Indian Institute of Astrophysics owes its birth to the vision and dynamism of M.K.Vainu Bappu. Vainu Bappu is also responsible for the revival of optical astronomy in independent India. In 1960 at the young age of 33, when Bappu arrived in Kodaikanal as the Director of the Observatory, he had already established himself as India's foremost optical astronomer. The seminal paper on the Wilson-Bappu effect had been published three years earlier and had opened up a new field of study - stellar chromospheres. As primarily a solar observatory, Kodaikanal had made impressive strides in solar work but the facilities at the observatory were inadequate for night time astronomy. While Bappu directed the solar work with dedication, he also started looking for a good astronomical site in peninsular India where a stellar observatory could be built. A decade-long effort led him finally to a spot in the Javadi Hills of Tamilnadu, next to the village of Kavalur, where he established the premier stellar observatory of the country. He undertook the pioneering though arduous task of building indigenuously a large optical telescope for the observatory at Kavalur. In 1986, when the late Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi inaugurated the indigenuously built 234-cm telescope at Kavalur, both the telescope and the observatory were named after Vainu Bappu, who had died rather suddenly in 1982, before the completion of his dream project.
Soon after coming to Kodaikanal, Bappu had also initiated action to create an autonomous research institute, which led to the formation of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in 1971. Today IIA has three field stations - the solar physics Observatory at Kodaikanal, the Vainu Bappu Observatory at Kavalur and the Indian Astronomical Observatory at Hanle in Ladakh. The Institute has its headquarters in Bangalore and another campus in Hoskote, the remote station to operate its telescopes in Hanle. The Institute also runs in Gauribidanur a low frequency radio observatory for solar observations.
v s/AASTRO
Kerala man in charge of NASA Mars Orbiter Project
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has a new project manager: Phil Varghese, a native of Kerala, India.He came to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1971 to study physics, earned his doctorate at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore., and then worked with computer and aerospace companies. He began his work at JPL as an engineer on NASA's Mars Observer Project and has managed another veteran NASA Mars mission - the Mars Odyssey orbiter - since 2004. Varghese has worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., since 1989.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been examining Mars with six advanced instruments since 2006. It has returned more data than the total from all other NASA missions that have flown farther than the moon.
Mars Odyssey began orbiting Mars in 2001 and is the longest-active spacecraft studying the Red Planet. Varghese previously managed the Deep Space 1 technology demonstration mission, which flew past asteroid Braille and comet Borrelly using solar-powered ion propulsion.
JPL's Jim Erickson managed the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project from December 2006 to February 2010, succeeding the project's original manager, Jim Graf. Erickson now manages JPL's Deep Space Network and Mission Service Planning and Management Program. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Manager Dan Johnston served as acting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project manager for the past four months.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey for NASA.