Our First Hero: Anil Bhardwaj,an ITBHU alumni
News Item:
'Saturn reflects X-rays from Sun, discovers ISRO scientist in US '
[-Lalit K Jha (HindustanTimes.com)Minneapolis, May 28, 2005]
A planetary scientist from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) working at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has found that the planet Saturn acts as a "diffused mirror" for solar X-rays.The revelation by Anil Bhardwaj, who is on the prestigious National Academy of Science Fellowship at the NASA's Marshall Space Flight Centre, Huntsville, Albama, has solved another mystery of this ringed planet.
Bhardwaj, who is also actively involved in the ISRO's ambitious Chandrayaan-I mission, told HindustanTimes.com: "These findings imply we could use giant planets like Saturn and Jupiter as remote-sensing tools. By reflecting solar activity back to us, these planets could help us monitor X-ray flaring on portions of the Sun facing away from the Earth's space satellites."
The studies by the team of NASA scientist led by Bhardwaj, which used the prestigious Chandra X-ray Observatory of the space agency, revealed that the ringed planet might act as a mirror reflecting explosive activity from the Sun.
The findings stem from the first observation of an X-ray flare reflected from Saturn's low latitudes, the region that correlates to Earth's equator and tropics.
Stating that the massive solar explosions -- called flares -- often accompany coronal mass ejections, which emit solar material and a magnetic field, he said: "when directed toward Earth, these ejections can wreak havoc on communications' systems from cell phones to satellites."
Bhardwaj said counting photons, particles that carry electromagnetic energy including X-rays, was critical to this discovery. Referring to another important finding of his, which was reported in March this year, he said Jupiter's 'X-ray glow' is due to X-rays from the Sun being reflected back off the planet's atmosphere.
"We found that Jupiter's day-to-day disk x-rays were synchronized with that of the Sun's emissions," he said. The bigger the planet and nearer to the Sun, the more solar photons it will intercept; resulting in more reflected X-rays, he added.
These results, he observed imply that "we could use giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn as remote-sensing tools. By reflecting solar activity back to us, they could help monitor X-ray flaring on portions of the Sun facing away from Earth's space satellites."
Commenting on Solar-flares (the most powerful explosion in the Solar system) he said its study was very important. "These can damage satellites or injure astronauts in space, and on Earth they can disrupt radio signals in the atmosphere, so it is important to understand as much as we can about them," he said.
Even as his research finings appeared to solve one mystery, about the source of Saturn's X-rays, Bhardwaj concede it has fueled the long-standing questions about magnetic fields.Of the three magnetic planets in solar system, Jupiter and Earth emit two general types of X-rays, auroral emissions from Polar Regions and disk emissions from low latitudes. Thus far, no research has observed unambiguous signatures of auroral X-ray emissions on this ringed planet. "
"We were surprised to find no clear evidence of auroral X-ray emissions during our observations. It is interesting to note that even as research solves some mysteries, it confirms there is much more we have to learn," he said.
Bhardwaj, who came to US on this prestigious fellowship, in January 2004, was at the Space Physics Laboratory of the ISRO's Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, Trivendrum.
He did his B.Sc. (Hons) and M.Sc. in Physics from Lucknow University and the Ph.D. in Physics (Space and Planetary Science) from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, before joining ISRO in 1993 as a senior research scientist.)
'Saturn reflects X-rays from Sun, discovers ISRO scientist in US '
[-Lalit K Jha (HindustanTimes.com)Minneapolis, May 28, 2005]
A planetary scientist from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) working at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has found that the planet Saturn acts as a "diffused mirror" for solar X-rays.The revelation by Anil Bhardwaj, who is on the prestigious National Academy of Science Fellowship at the NASA's Marshall Space Flight Centre, Huntsville, Albama, has solved another mystery of this ringed planet.
Bhardwaj, who is also actively involved in the ISRO's ambitious Chandrayaan-I mission, told HindustanTimes.com: "These findings imply we could use giant planets like Saturn and Jupiter as remote-sensing tools. By reflecting solar activity back to us, these planets could help us monitor X-ray flaring on portions of the Sun facing away from the Earth's space satellites."
The studies by the team of NASA scientist led by Bhardwaj, which used the prestigious Chandra X-ray Observatory of the space agency, revealed that the ringed planet might act as a mirror reflecting explosive activity from the Sun.
The findings stem from the first observation of an X-ray flare reflected from Saturn's low latitudes, the region that correlates to Earth's equator and tropics.
Stating that the massive solar explosions -- called flares -- often accompany coronal mass ejections, which emit solar material and a magnetic field, he said: "when directed toward Earth, these ejections can wreak havoc on communications' systems from cell phones to satellites."
Bhardwaj said counting photons, particles that carry electromagnetic energy including X-rays, was critical to this discovery. Referring to another important finding of his, which was reported in March this year, he said Jupiter's 'X-ray glow' is due to X-rays from the Sun being reflected back off the planet's atmosphere.
"We found that Jupiter's day-to-day disk x-rays were synchronized with that of the Sun's emissions," he said. The bigger the planet and nearer to the Sun, the more solar photons it will intercept; resulting in more reflected X-rays, he added.
These results, he observed imply that "we could use giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn as remote-sensing tools. By reflecting solar activity back to us, they could help monitor X-ray flaring on portions of the Sun facing away from Earth's space satellites."
Commenting on Solar-flares (the most powerful explosion in the Solar system) he said its study was very important. "These can damage satellites or injure astronauts in space, and on Earth they can disrupt radio signals in the atmosphere, so it is important to understand as much as we can about them," he said.
Even as his research finings appeared to solve one mystery, about the source of Saturn's X-rays, Bhardwaj concede it has fueled the long-standing questions about magnetic fields.Of the three magnetic planets in solar system, Jupiter and Earth emit two general types of X-rays, auroral emissions from Polar Regions and disk emissions from low latitudes. Thus far, no research has observed unambiguous signatures of auroral X-ray emissions on this ringed planet. "
"We were surprised to find no clear evidence of auroral X-ray emissions during our observations. It is interesting to note that even as research solves some mysteries, it confirms there is much more we have to learn," he said.
Bhardwaj, who came to US on this prestigious fellowship, in January 2004, was at the Space Physics Laboratory of the ISRO's Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, Trivendrum.
He did his B.Sc. (Hons) and M.Sc. in Physics from Lucknow University and the Ph.D. in Physics (Space and Planetary Science) from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, before joining ISRO in 1993 as a senior research scientist.)
posted by Prof Ramendra Singh at 2:27 AM
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