The five-day long INSPIRE camp began at Pt Ravishankar Shukla University on Thursday. Renowned Physicist and Padmavibhushan recipient Professor Jayant Vishnu Narlikar inaugurated the camp.
Addressing the huge gathering he said that International Astronomical Union, the world astronomy authority, has issued a warning of a potential collision between Earth and a comet swinging in from the fringes of the solar system. The collision if happened could have grave consequence on human civilizations across globe, he said.
Dealing further the Senior Scientist said date of the potential collision is more than a century away ‘August 14, 2126’. The possibilities of catastrophe, astronomers say, are vanishingly small, one out of 10,000, Dr Narlikar remarked.
The repercussions of a major collision could be so large, Narlikar said that clouds of dust blocking sunlight, disrupting the global climate and causing mass extinction could occur. The astronomical union is encouraging its members to train their telescopes on the potential interloper, Comet Swift-Tuttle, which is believed to be about six miles in diameter. Comets and asteroids as small as a mile in diameter are believed to pose serious threats to global climate, he said.
Apart from Dr Narlikar Dr Majumdar from Kalyani Kolkata, Amlesh Mukhopadhyaya, Scientific Advisor to Government of India, and other dignitaries shared their knowledge with students.