Lecture Series

Offline and Online Lectures from Distinguished Speakers in Astronomy, Astrophotonics, Radio Astronomy, Antennas

We target to engage our audience with the recent research and work being done in Astrophotonics, Radio-Astronomy and related domains under our Lecture series “Astrophotonics Recent Trends” and “Radio-Astronomy Recent Trends”.

We also organize “Pop Talk” which are lectures organized in popular topics in astronomy, with breathtaking talks, visuals, video playback sessions organized by passionate members of Astronova, it is a mini astronomy show for you at your University. Sign up with our Newsletter to be alerted whenever we begin registrations for the next event!

Upcoming Talk

Title: "Dark Ages cosmology using the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT) on the far side of the Moon"

Speaker: Dr. Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay, NASA-JPL

Date: 4th March (Tuesday), 2025 (3:00 PM to 4:30 PM IST)

Abstract from Speaker: The Cosmic Dark Ages hold the key to understanding the early universe yet remain unexplored due to Earth’s ionospheric interference. The Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT) proposes a groundbreaking solution—placing a 350-meter parabolic radio telescope inside a lunar crater on the far side of the Moon. Shielded from terrestrial radio noise, LCRT will capture the elusive 4.7–47 MHz HI signal from neutral hydrogen, shedding light on dark matter, cosmic inflation, and the standard cosmological model. This talk will present LCRT’s innovative deployment strategy, mission concept, and its potential as a leading candidate for NASA’s next-generation Dark Ages probe.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay is a robotics technologist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, where he develops novel algorithms for future autonomous and multi-agent missions. In 2020, he was named a NASA NIAC fellow for his work on the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope on the far side of the Moon. He received his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering in 2016 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, where he specialized in probabilistic swarm guidance and distributed estimation. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering in 2010 from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India, where as an undergraduate, he co-founded and led the institute’s student satellite project, Pratham, which was launched into low Earth orbit in September 2016. His engineering expertise stems from a long-standing interest in the science underlying space missions, since winning the gold medal for India at the 9th International Astronomy Olympiad held in Ukraine in 2004. Currently, Saptarshi is focused on conceptualizing space missions that can leverage the unique capabilities of multiple spacecraft. His research interests include studying the evolution of the Solar System by probing the interiors of small bodies, using interferometry to image exoplanets, and gaining insights into the origin of life and our place in the Universe. He has published more than 70 papers in journals and refereed conferences.