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ARTICLES | IIA

The Moon passed in front of the bright red star Antares on 27 April 2024, hiding it for roughly 40 minutes. This event was visible only from southern India. The SCOPE Section of IIA filmed the disappearance and reappearance of Antares and made it publicly available.

Videos of the occultation can be found here.

The 125th anniversary of the iconic Kodaikanal Solar Observatory (KSO) was celebrated on 1 April 2024 by Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), to remember the history of KSO, felicitate its scientists, and honour its legacy was a milestone for astronomy in India. The KSO houses a digital repository of 1.2 lakh digitised solar images and thousands of other images of the Sun recorded every day since the start of the 20th century. A.S. Kiran Kumar, former Chairman of ISRO and Chairperson of the Governing Council of IIA then unveiled the KSO 125 logo for the anniversary celebrations along with a booklet detailing the history and the research highlights of the Observatory.

Webpage of the event here.

The asteroid 2005 EX296 has now been designated as (215884) Jayantmurthy, as was announced on 18 March by the IAU through its Working Group on Small Bodies Nomenclature This Working Group is the designated body to provide official names to all asteroids, comets and other small objects in the Solar System. The asteroid (215884) Jayantmurthy was discovered by M.W. Buie at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, USA in 2005, and been named after Prof. Murthy in recognition of his work in the NASA New Horizons Science Team to observe the ultraviolet background radiation in the Universe. The asteroid goes around the Sun in an orbit that lies between that of Mars and Jupiter once every 3.3 years.

In late-April 2023, a severe geomagnetic storm in Earth’s magnetosphere led to an vivid display of the aurora in in lower latitudes extending to places like Ladakh. Astronomers at IIA have used multi-wavelength observations from multiple space telescopes to track the origins of the storm in the Sun. They found that the rotation of the filament structure when it was near the Sun was the leading cause behind this solar storm which resulted in such a strong effect on the Earth. 

Press release published here.

Download the paper from here.

More than 4000 astronomy enthusiasts of Bengaluru and other cities poured into the Indian Institute of Astrophysics today for its Open Day, to learn about the subject in a highly interactive and engaging way. The institute celebrated National Science Day as Open Day on 25 February, Sunday, to facilitate a larger number of public to visit the campus.

Indian Institute of Astrophysics will celebrate National Science Day as “IIA Open Day” on 25 February, Sunday, from 9 AM to 6 PM at its campus in Koramangala. This event is open to the general public, is free of charge, and there is no prior registration required.

Astronomers at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics used the Himalayan Chandra Telescope

(HCT) in Hanle, Ladakh to photograph the Comet P12/Pons-Brooks on 21 November 2023.

This comet has recently attracted much attention from the astronomy community and the

media due to its many outbursts of gas and dust, and has been dubbed the 'Devil Comet' or

the 'Millennium Falcon' due to its appearance. It will become brighter in the coming months

and may even become a naked eye comet.

As an unexpected but beautiful surprise, the all-sky cameras at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO) at Hanle and Merak in Ladakh captured images of an intense red coloured aurora on the night of 5 November 2023. The Observatory is run by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India.

The first official Star Party for experienced amateur astronomers was organised by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) at Hanle Dark Sky Reserve in eastern Ladakh, between 12-15 October 2023. The press release can be found here.

A major milestone of TMT Primary Mirror Segment Polishing and Metrology Equipment Commissioning at India-TMT Optics Fabrication Facility (ITOFF) is successfully completed.