Portrait of a Young Galaxy

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Infosys Prize Lecture

Portrait of a Young Galaxy

04:00 PM

February 19, 2023

Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bangalore

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Event

Galaxies are made up of stars and interstellar gas and a galaxy's life involves the conversion of the gas into stars, until the gas in the galaxy and its environs finally run out. Neutral atomic hydrogen is the main component of this gas and the main fuel for star formation. Understanding galaxy evolution hence requires understanding the evolution of both stars and atomic hydrogen. This talk will focus on using modern radio telescopes, to measure the atomic hydrogen content of galaxies when the universe was young. Infosys Prize laureate Prof. Nissim Kanekar will trace 30 years of attempts to detect 21 cm emission from galaxies early in the universe, culminating in the recent Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) detection of emission from galaxies 9 billion years ago.

Speaker

Prof. Nissim Kanekar

Professor, National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Pune