Somak Raychaudhury's Avatar

Somak Raychaudhury

@somakrc

Astrophysics, Ashoka University, India. Formerly @IUCAAstro Pune. Alumnus Presidency College Calcutta, U Oxford & Cambridge. Posts personal.

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20.11.2024
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Latest posts by Somak Raychaudhury @somakrc

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Detangle with Prof Somak Raychaudhury

Recently I sat down with Dr Kinjal Goyal for an episodei her popular audio podcast series “Detangle by Kinjal” to discuss life, classrooms and galaxies

Spotify:

open.spotify.com/episode/4HkC...

Youtube:

youtu.be/_sgXX2n1Kl8?...

Apple Podcasts:

podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/d...

14.02.2026 11:38 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Yup, so was I

26.05.2025 18:42 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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My tribute to JVN in the Economic Times, 26 May 2025

m.economictimes.com/opinion/et-c...

26.05.2025 18:39 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Jayant Narlikar: Remembering the Indian scientist who challenged the Big Bang theory Jayant Narlikar who died at age 86, was dedicated to science education and shaped a generation of Indian researchers.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

24.05.2025 05:50 👍 10 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0
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Jayant Narlikar stood at the intersection of intellect and imagination, of science and society, of cosmos and conscience. He did not merely observe the universe. He belonged to it.
Hindustan Times 21 May 2025

www.pressreader.com/india/hindus...

24.05.2025 05:48 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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India to begin construction of gravitational wave project A remote 174-acre tract of land in central India is about to become one of the most sensitive listening posts in the universe

Having this detector on Indian soil, on the other side of the world from the American observatories, will dramatically improve our ability to localize the sources of gravitational waves

www.nature.com/articles/d44...

29.04.2025 19:59 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Hindustan Times, 26 April 2025

29.04.2025 19:56 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Promising hints of life found on distant planet K2-18b Scientists find new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.

An astonishing headline reporting on new observations from a team led to Nikku Madhusudhan claims they’ve found ‘hints of life’ on a planet orbiting a dwarf star some 124 light years away. What’s going on? (1/n) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🔭 🧪

17.04.2025 03:24 👍 871 🔁 342 💬 27 📌 123

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.

15.04.2025 03:52 👍 89667 🔁 18249 💬 1574 📌 747
Why We Die
Why We Die YouTube video by Kolkata Literary Meet

This was a memorable experience last week at the Coal India Kolkata Literary Meet at the Alipore Horticultural Gardens in Kolkata. Venki Ramakrishnan is a remarkable scientist, humble and brilliant, and it was fun talkimg to him about his new book “Why we Die”.

youtu.be/A8OAjGGXuHI

29.01.2025 17:04 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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India succeeds in historic space docking mission: Why it’s a big deal Only the US, Russia and China have previously docked in space. The expertise is critical for advanced missions.

“ISRO has demonstrated it is good at launching and putting things in orbit, as well as landing. Now, docking is an important part of upcoming missions – and ISRO is now graduating to a very, very significant level…” my comment on the #ISRO #SPADEX mission

aje.io/fzul7x

19.01.2025 18:32 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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19.01.2025 18:27 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Lokesh Hansawat (@lokesh_hansawat) on Threads GOLD! 24 runs needed to avoid the follow-on... 9 wickets down... One of the greatest moments in Indian cricket history! ON THIS DAY in 1990 at Lord's: Kapil Dev. The legend. The hero. BANG!!...

www.threads.net/@lokesh_hans...

06.01.2025 20:14 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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January 4: it’s Perihelion Day today!

The Earth's orbit around the Sun is an ellipse.

We are closest to the Sun (perihelion) today, January 4, 2025 at 6.58 pm Indian time, when the Earth about 147 million km from the Sun. At aphelion last July 3, 2024, the Earth was 152 million km away.

04.01.2025 19:34 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Former US President Jimmy Carter passed away last Sunday. Much has been written about his kindness, humility and indomitable spirit. For me, he holds the distinction of having signed the letter that has reached the farthest from Earth (now 25 billion km away, launched on the Voyager in 1977).

01.01.2025 17:42 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Indian students last year spent $60 billion at foreign Universities, >10x the annual budget of the Indian Government for Higher Education.

I discuss in today’s #TheHindu the key areas India must focus on to aspire to become the destination of choice for students worldwide. #AshokaUniversity

30.12.2024 13:32 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Khayal - A Musical Journey - Hindustani Classical Music (1987) - Narrated by Zakir Hussain
Khayal - A Musical Journey - Hindustani Classical Music (1987) - Narrated by Zakir Hussain YouTube video by Xavi Ganjam

Zakir Hussain's 1987 documentary for the Indian Films Division is a masterpiece that explains the history and structure of Hindustani classical music. With his expertise and narrative style, he guides viewers while visiting many of India’s most beautiful historical sites.

youtu.be/Yj3XjNxCO5I?...

24.12.2024 12:43 👍 16 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0


The Icarus of our age: #NASA #ParkerSolarProbe will fly closest to the Sun-only 9 times the Sun's radius - the nearest any human-made object has ever been to our closest star.

24.12.2024 19:41 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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#Nature Science index finds #Kolkata to be the top Indian city for scientific research, closely followed by Bengaluru. Apart from the long research tradition of the City, many of the best students still come to academia. In today’s #TimesofIndia
epaper.indiatimes.com/article-shar...

22.12.2024 16:15 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
A massive spiral galaxy fills the image. A bright, yellow galactic core glows at the center, surrounded by spiral arms studded with pink stars and dark lanes of dust.

A massive spiral galaxy fills the image. A bright, yellow galactic core glows at the center, surrounded by spiral arms studded with pink stars and dark lanes of dust.

A spiral galaxy, seen face-on to the viewer. The bright center of the galaxy is crossed by a glowing bar, and it is surrounded by tightly wound spiral arms, forming a circular shape with relatively clear edges. Faraway galaxies are visible around it, along with a few bright stars, on a dark background. One star to the right of the galaxy is very large and extremely bright with long diffraction spikes.

A spiral galaxy, seen face-on to the viewer. The bright center of the galaxy is crossed by a glowing bar, and it is surrounded by tightly wound spiral arms, forming a circular shape with relatively clear edges. Faraway galaxies are visible around it, along with a few bright stars, on a dark background. One star to the right of the galaxy is very large and extremely bright with long diffraction spikes.

Slightly oblique view of a spiral galaxy with a glowing yellow central core and two spiral arms that wind clockwise from the center. The arms consist of dark reddish-brown dust trails that are vein-like and hazy clouds of blue stars. The outer regions of the galaxy appear bluer, with bright clusters of blue stars sparsely lining the outer edges of the spiral arms. There are a few foreground stars that have bright white or blue cores with colorful fuzzy halos and four diffraction spikes radiating from their centers.  Scattered across the dark background are thousands of faint objects that vary in size, shape, and color. Most appear as small dots, ovals, or lines in different shades of orange, red, and blue.

Slightly oblique view of a spiral galaxy with a glowing yellow central core and two spiral arms that wind clockwise from the center. The arms consist of dark reddish-brown dust trails that are vein-like and hazy clouds of blue stars. The outer regions of the galaxy appear bluer, with bright clusters of blue stars sparsely lining the outer edges of the spiral arms. There are a few foreground stars that have bright white or blue cores with colorful fuzzy halos and four diffraction spikes radiating from their centers. Scattered across the dark background are thousands of faint objects that vary in size, shape, and color. Most appear as small dots, ovals, or lines in different shades of orange, red, and blue.

A bright, white galactic core shines near the center of the image with a faint bar of stars extending from it, diagonally to the right. Faint, hazy spiral arms encircle the core, with several distant stars and bright blue foreground stars with diffraction spikes scattered throughout the image, all against black space.

A bright, white galactic core shines near the center of the image with a faint bar of stars extending from it, diagonally to the right. Faint, hazy spiral arms encircle the core, with several distant stars and bright blue foreground stars with diffraction spikes scattered throughout the image, all against black space.

galaxies are so beautiful 🌌

05.12.2024 02:40 👍 5721 🔁 428 💬 69 📌 20
Graphic that shows a single dish from the MeerKAT telescope, and it is silhouetted across a background of illustrated supermassive black holes and space-time, represented by a warped grid.

Graphic that shows a single dish from the MeerKAT telescope, and it is silhouetted across a background of illustrated supermassive black holes and space-time, represented by a warped grid.

MeerKAT Pulsar Timing Array team has announced evidence for the Gravitational Wave Background (GWB)!

@cosmicrami.com had a chat with lead author @astromattmiles.bsky.social from @ozgrav.bsky.social

www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/mpta...

📸 C. Knox/Swinburne/OzGrav/SARAO

#SpaceAustralia 🔭🧪

1/3

03.12.2024 00:01 👍 110 🔁 39 💬 6 📌 11
A stunning infrared image of the spiral galaxy NGC 3596, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. The galaxy's intricate spiral arms wind outwards from a bright central core, filled with countless stars. The image reveals a wealth of detail, including dark dust lanes and bright star-forming regions that glow in shades of red and pink.

A stunning infrared image of the spiral galaxy NGC 3596, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. The galaxy's intricate spiral arms wind outwards from a bright central core, filled with countless stars. The image reveals a wealth of detail, including dark dust lanes and bright star-forming regions that glow in shades of red and pink.

JWST image of NGC 3596.
Processed NIRCam (white) + MIRI (red) data by @yuvharpaz.bsky.social
nerdculture.de/@yuvharpaz/1...
🔭 🧪

03.12.2024 19:00 👍 1433 🔁 99 💬 13 📌 2
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I am amazed that hundreds of students managed to sing together in tune.

03.12.2024 18:22 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Today A R Rahman visited #AshokaUniversity We persuaded him to interact with the students, and even though this is just before the exams, 1500 students showed up. ARR patiently answered many questions, and then, in answer to a question, he walked over to the piano, and magic happened.

03.12.2024 18:20 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 3 📌 0
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#IdeaExchange at the #IndianExpress - I had a great conversation, moderated by Amitabh Sinha. indianexpress.com/article/indi...

20.11.2024 19:31 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0