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Indian astrophysicist Jayant Murthy now has an asteroid named after him. Murthy is an honorary professor and former director of the Indian Institute of Astronomy, which welcomed and celebrated the honour. Murthy is an international authority on ultraviolet background radiation.
Jayant Murthy. (Image credit: Jayant Murthy).
New Delhi: The Working Group on Small Body Nomenclature (WGSBN) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has named an asteroid in honor of the work of Indian astrophysicist Jayant Murthy. The IAU is responsible for the official naming of astronomical objects, including bodies in the Solar System. Jayant Murthy is the former director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and a world authority on ultraviolet background radiation.
38 scientists working with NASA’s New Horizons mission have been honored with asteroids or minor planets named after them. The asteroid formerly known as 2005 EX, discovered in 2005, has now been given the official designation 215884 Jayantmurthy. The asteroid is located in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, like most asteroids in the Solar System.
Who is Jayant Murthy?
Jayant Murthy is a senior professor at IIA and his scientific work focuses on diffuse ultraviolet background radiation. One of his investigations was to understand if there was any relationship between the unusually high levels of ultraviolet background radiation detected by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite and dark matter, a mysterious substance that does not interact with light, but is widely distributed. . It is believed to permeate the Milky Way and most other galaxies. Murthy is working closely with NASA’s New Horizons team to investigate the relationship between dark matter and ultraviolet background radiation, through the onboard Alice spectrometer.
What is the New Horizons mission?
The New Horizons spacecraft was launched on January 19, 2006 on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. The spacecraft’s primary goal was to study Pluto, which it did in 2015 after a nine-year trip. years. The mission was then recast and New Horizons visited the distant Kuiper Belt Object (KBO), Arrokoth, in early 2019. The spacecraft is now exploring the far reaches of the Solar System. New Horizons is equipped with a sophisticated suite of technical science instruments, including the Alice ultraviolet spectrometer.