Ankur Bora
“Hindu is the only
religion in which the time scales correspond to those of modern scientific
cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of
Brahma, 8.64 billion years long.” Carl Sagan, American astronomer,
cosmologist, astrophysicist and author.
 |
| Assam Tribune Horizon 1st June 2017 |
Picture a breathtaking clear starry sky, twinkled with
ever-changing display of the fascinating objects, from stars and constellations
to bright planets, from Mercury to Neptune to our much loved moon. Then, there appears
a sudden outburst of shooting stars; a comet; the glorious display of the
Northern lights with their swirling curtains of red or green, or even an
exploding star. Now, imagine each of these thousands of cosmic creation has a
personality; each has its own story to tell!
Human mind is always captivated by the pages of cosmic
evolution, framed by the splendid galaxies of space. This quest for space
exploration is opening new opportunities – technological innovations, new
industries and a vista of expanding knowledge.
The field of study of cosmos, how to navigate the night sky, how to identify
the galaxies and exploring what lies beyond our planet is called astronomy. It
is an art celebrating the beauty of Gods’ creation and science that brings in physics, chemistry,
mathematics and biology. The word “astronomer” probably conjures up the image
of a white bearded man peering through a long telescope. Although today’s
astronomer is as likely to be female as male, who would utilize a whole armory
of sophisticated and powerful equipment set up around the world which can be operated
from anywhere with the aid of a computer.
Dr. Sanchayeeta Borthakur is an astronomer and scientist at
the Johns Hopkins University, USA who has made significant contributions in
finding star forming galaxies, thus in understanding how the universe evolved
as the first stars were formed. Sanchayeeta and her co –researchers have identified a
galaxy that provides the first observational clues to how light from the
earliest stars may have caused a crucial event in the history of the universe and how matter and energy is spread throughout
the universe.
Sanchayeeta is
originally from Bongaigaon , Assam where her father was the Chief Medical
Officer at the refinery. Her interest in astronomy started at a very young age.
Her father brought the science of learning to life with stories about the sky,
the stars and the cosmos. “I remember when I was about 3 years old, my father
and I used to go on walks at dusk/night and I would ask him about the stars”. Sanchayeeta
recalls how that walking adventure with her father under the panoramic sky along
the dark streets of Bongaigaon stirred her interest in space. My father knew Saptarishi
and some of the constellations and he would point them out to me. I was
absolutely fascinated by the sky. Occasionally, my father wouldn’t know the
name of a star. Then, I would say, “When
I grow-up, I am going to find out about those stars and will tell you about
them just as you are telling me now”. I believe that was when I had fallen in
love with astronomy and I never got over it!
In an effort to both attract and involve the world’s best
physicists, astronomers and engineers, a large number of universities across United
State have devoted significant time and effort in creating stunning
observatories. An observatory houses both optical and radio telescopes some of
them are whopping eight stories tall. Sanchayeeta has been working at the
Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy at John Hopkins. The NASA’s Space
Telescope Science Institute, the scientific home of the Hubble Space Telescope,
the most famous observatory in history of mankind, is located nearby. Sanchayeeta’s research primarily involves
discerning what the stars were made of, dividing the stars into meaningful
categories for further research and finding ways to measure distances between
the planetary objects. However, with recent advancement in astronomical data
gathering and new tools, she has pioneered a new area of research involving
star-forming galaxy.
The universe, years after its origin through the Big Bang,
was populated by neutral hydrogen atoms and was a dark place, devoid of light.
The regions in galaxies, at that time, were covered with thick, dense, cold
gas, stretching like a blanket. Any ionizing photon or electron produced during
the evolution of these galaxies would be expected to be absorbed by this
blanket. This presents a challenge for astrophysicists – if they cannot escape,
there will be no radiation capable of ionizing the hydrogen and if they cannot
ionize there will not be any star formation and if it is, the universe will be
in perpetual darkness! Astronomers view re-ionisation as a critical event in
the history of the cosmos and Sanchayeeta and her team of researchers at Johns Hopkins
revealed a likely mechanism to solve this mystery. Their experiment is aided by
Hubble Space Telescope and by a scientific measurement technique called Spectroscopy,
originally developed by Nobel Laureate Sir. C. V. Raman.
Light is a lot more than just the colored visible rays that
we see. In addition to the traditional Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo
and Violet color spectrum, there are gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet (UV) radiation,
infrared (IR) radiation, microwaves and radio waves! Just like a prism which
can break white light up into the visible light spectrum you can measure the
ray that is emitted, absorbed, or scattered by any element. The spectrum is like a fingerprint which can
be used to study, identify and quantify a molecule and the element.
Using observations made with the Cosmic Origin Spectrograph,
onboard the Hubble Space Telescope, the research team found a galaxy named
J0921+4509, a massive but highly compact star-forming region. They detected a sea of intense ionising
photons and electrons with a significant fraction escaping the gas cloud
blanket. This galaxy, by leaking photons to intergalactic space, thus became a
nursery for new stars! “The mystery was,
how did these photons of this specific energy leave their galaxies?” Sanchayeeta, whose research findings appeared
in the US journal Science, suggests that a vast proportion of our cosmos is
driven by forces that we, as yet, do not understand.
Dr. Sanchayeeta Borthakur remains dedicated to her research
on galaxies and space – “Every day, I try
to do my best and not worry about the results. Research and discovery in
particular cannot be planned. Sometimes things work out and we discover
exciting things, other times we try and learn from our failures. The goal is to
enjoy the process. All I want to do is something interesting and challenging.”
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