The Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) director Anil Kumar Pandey said that institute’s geologists Shashibhushan Pande and Kuntal Mishra also played an important role through optical observation in the direct gravitational wave detection, for which this year’s Nobel prize in physics was awarded.
Calling this a matter of pride for ARIES, its director opined that the discovery had opened new doors in the sphere of observation. The 3.6 metre telescope of the institute at Devasthal can also play an important role in this sphere in the future, he added. The institute director said this while addressing the media persons here on Tuesday.
Pandey said that about a hundred years ago, noted scientist Albert Einstein had predicted the gravitational waves. The scientific fraternity has been occupied for the past five decades trying to discover these gravitational waves. Several scientists across the world including Indian scientists and ARIES scientists had been consistently undertaking research on the subject. Following success in observation of the gravitational waves, the Nobel prize in physics for the year 2017 was awarded to three scientists based in the United States of America.
ARIES scientists Shashibhushan Pande and Kuntal Mishra have been involved since 1999 in studying gravitational waves through various sources. They made optical observations dozens of times using the 100 centimetre Sampurnanand telescope of the institute along with participating in studies of other groups and observatories. The ARIES director further said that for the scientists of the institute and elsewhere in India, the 3.6 metre telescope of the institute would prove useful in the future for further studies on the subject.
Expressing their views on the occasion, institute scientists Shashibhushan Pandey and Kuntal Mishra said that the Nobel prize in physics being awarded for work in the sphere of gravitational waves was a matter of pride. From the geographical point of view, the sites at which observatories in India and the ARIES observatory are located have a special place in the international sphere, they added.