Scientists and astronomers meet at Raman Research Institute to explore moon as vantage point for studying the Universe 

Astronomers from across the country, along with scientists, researchers from ISRO and industry discussed the possibilities of studying the cosmos from the moon, as ISRO accounted yet another lunar mission in the future.

In the first of a symposium series announced by the Astronomical Society of India (ASI), researchers from the Raman Research Institute (RRI) and U.R. Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation, organised a three-day symposium titled ‘Astronomy from Moon in the era of Indian lunar missions’ which was held at RRI over December 2 to 4.  

According to the release, leveraging the unique lunar environment can provide abundant information to study the Universe, enabling astronomy studies better than on Earth or elsewhere in space.

Discussions revolved around a diverse range of topics, including understanding space weather from the moon, planning astronomy experiments on future lunar missions such as conducting Infrared / Ultraviolet and X-ray observations, exploring cosmology using the moon’s radio quietness, studying meteorites and cosmic rays, and conceptualizing deci-hertz gravitational wave measurements through sensitive seismometry, among other related subjects.

A public talk titled ‘Clear Skies over a steady horizon: Astronomy from the Moon’ by gravitational wave scientist Prof. Jan Harms from the Gran Sasso Science Institute, Italy, was held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium on December 3 under the “Vignyana Kathegalu” - stories in science series from RRI. 

The symposium was attended by over 60 participants including members from several notable institutions including, IISER Kolkata, IIT Kanpur, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, IIT-Indore, NISER Bhubaneswar among others.