Siliguri: An astrophysicist from West Bengal has become a cynosure of all eyes in his hometown Siliguri and everywhere in the state for his vital association with the Aditya L1, the country's maiden solar mission.
Janmejoy Sarkar, a resident of Deshbandhu Para of the North Bengal town, is associated with the development of the telescope that ISRO is using in the mission to observe the sun's ultraviolet rays. After the solar spacecraft reaches the halo orbit near the L-1 point, the Sun will be observed through the telescope.
As a child, Janmajoy used to observe the sky as a member of the Siliguri astronomy club 'Swan'. He said during childhood, watching the sky through a telescope became his passion but he never thought that he would be a part of the country's ambitious mission. He had once photographed a solar eclipse for the first time in India with the H-Alpha telescope, which has been an integral part of his sky-gazing exercise.
"I loved watching stars, planets and eclipses through a telescope. It remained a favourite pastime and habit for me all these years until my father insisted me to seriously think of a career out of it. It feels great to be a part of my country's first solar mission," he said.
Inspired by his father Debashish Sarkar, Janmjoy's interest in stars, planets and eclipses through telescopes grew with time. After passing out from a private school and college in Siliguri, he got himself admitted to Tezpur University of Assam for his higher education in physics. From there, he started studying space physics or astrophysics. Then got an opportunity to work as a Senior Research Fellow at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA)in Pune.
In 2019, Janmejoy was chosen by scientists to build a telescope to observe the sun, which will monitor the movement of the sun's ultraviolet rays. ISRO has taken the help of various organisations and educational institutions for its sun mission. IUCAA, one of the world's largest in space science, was responsible for the construction of the Aditya L-1 Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT).
Janmejoy was in the team that built this telescope from its inception. Aditya L-1 will cover about five times more distance than Chandrayaan. At the end of the 40-day journey, the ISRO scientists have to practically place the spacecraft at the halo point. The Sarkar family is excited about their son's success. "It feels great that my son is among the scientists and researchers of such an expedition. But the real work will begin after reaching the halo point. We have to wait for those few days," father Debashish Sarkar told ETV Bharat.
