Heralding towards success
Indian Astronomy
Children development of astronomy in India has come a long way from the Vedic times to the current day. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), under the Department of Space (DoS) is responsible for research, development and operation in the space through satellite communications, remote sensing for resource survey, environmental monitoring, meteorological services, etc. Infact India is the only developing country to develop its own remote sensing satellite.
The most important texts of ancient Indian astronomy had been compiled between the 5th and 15th century AD—the classical era of Indian astronomy. The more familiar ones among these works are Aryabahteeya, Aryabhatasiddhanta, Panchasiddantika and Laghubhaskariyam.
Ancient Indian astronomers were notable in several respects. Their achievements are even more baffling considering that they never used any kind of telescopes They put forth the sun-centric theory for the solar system, elliptical orbits for planets instead of circular ones, reasonably accurate calculations for the length of a year and the earth’s dimensions and the idea that our sun was no different from the countless other stars in night sky. In the days of its beginning Indian astronomy had been influenced by the ideas of Greeks and Romans. Later through trade and other contacts, we influenced the course of astronomy in China and the Islamic world. Through the Islamic world, ideas of Indian astronomy were introduced back in Europe.
Somewhere during the Middle Ages progress in the field of astronomy stood still and an admixture of astronomy and astrology arose. This association with astrology derailed Indian astronomy and blind faith and superstitions started to dominate. Interestingly people were still interested in making observations of the night sky and that art kept improving. They had, however, stopped trying to understand what their observations meant. With the colonisation, the European school of astronomy displaced our own. The last remarkable astronomer in pre-independence India was Sumanta Chandrasekhara. His book Sidhanta Darpana and his use of simple instruments in getting accurate observations earned him praise even from the British.
In our present era, the Indian space programme stands on the contributions by two giants in the field of physics—Homi J Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai. Over this period of time, India also produced some remarkable astronomers and astrophysicists. Meghnad Saha and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar are two world renowned names in astrophysics. On the side of observational astronomy we had Dr Vainu Bappu, the first Indian to have a comet named after him. He is the only person responsible for reviving observational astronomy in India and taking it to great heights. Currently the Giant Meter-wave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at Khodad near Pune is the largest of its kind in the world. The Kavalur observatory, named after Dr Bappu is one of the best equipped in the eastern hemisphere. It has a 2.3 metre aperture optical telescope, which is the largest one can find in Asia.
ISRO became a separate entity in 1969. From then onwards it had a glorious path from launching the first Indian satellite Aryabhata to the lunar mission Chandrayan-I. Infact gone are the days when we had to depend on other nations to launch our satellites. With our state-of-the art collection of launch vehicle fleets including PSLV, the GSLV and the GSLV M III, we are offering economical satellitie launch facility to other nations. On September 9, 2012 ISRO launched its 100th PSLV from Sriharikotta, on September 29, 2012 ISRO launched its latest telecommunication satellite G Sat-10. The satellite weighing 3,400 kg with life span of 15 years will be used for telecommunication, radio navigation and DTH broad casting.
These developments have consistently aided to our country’s progress. Soon we would be able to send an Indian to space using our own technology and thus emulate what Rakesh Sharma did as part of a Soviet mission. —Aniket Raja
Dr Har Gobind Khurana
Dr Har Gobind Khurana was born on January 9, 1922 in a small village called Raipur in Punjab (now in Pakistan) and was the youngest of five siblings. His father was a patwari, an agricultural taxation clerk in British India.
Khurana had his preliminary schooling at home. Later he joined the DAV Multan High School. He graduated in Science from Punjab University, Lahore, in 1943 and went on to acquire his Masters degree in Science in 1945. He joined the University of Liverpool for his doctoral work and got his Doctorate in 1948. He did post doctoral work at Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Technology, where he met his Swiss wife Elizabeth Sibler. Later he took up a job at the British Columbia Research Council in Vancouver and continued his pioneering work on proteins and nucleic acids.
Khurana joined the University of Wisconsin in 1960, and 10 years later joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Dr Khurana received the Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 along with M W Nirenberg and RW Holley for the interpretation of the genetic code, its function and protein synthesis. Till his death, he was with Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry emeritus at MIT. The Government of Indian has honoured him with Padma Vibhushan in 1969.
He won numerous other prestigious awards, including the Albert Lasker award for medical research, National Medal of Science and the Ellis Island Medal of Honour. But he remained modest throughout his life and stayed away from the glare of publicity.
In a note after winning the Nobel Prize, Dr. Khurana wrote: “Although poor, my father was dedicated to educating his children and we were practically the only literate family in the village inhabited by about 100 people.” Following his father’s footsteps, Dr.Khurana imparted education to thousands of students for more then half a century. He was more interested in the next project and experiments than cashing in on his fame. He was born in a poor family in a small village in Punjab, and by dint of sheer talent and tenacity rose to be one of science’s immortals.
Dr Har Gobind Kurana died in a hospital in Concord, Massachusetts, on November 9, 2011.
(FOC)
