Indian Astrophysicist Jayant Murthy now has an asteroid named after him. Murthy is an honourary professor at and former director of the Indian Institute of Astronomy which has 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 Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has named an asteroid to honour the work of Indian astrophysicist Jayant Murthy. The IAU is responsible for the official naming of astronomical objects, including bodies within the Solar System. Jayant Murthy is the former Director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), and a global authority on ultraviolet background radiation.
38 scientists working with NASA’s New Horizons mission have all been honoured 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 of 215884 Jayantmurthy. The asteroid is housed in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, like most of the asteroids in the Solar System.
Who is Jayant Murthy?
Jayant Murthy is a Senior Professor at the IIA, and his scientific work is focused on diffuse ultraviolent background radiation. One of his investigations was to understand if there was a relationship between unusually high levels of ultraviolet background radiation detected by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite has any relation to dark matter, a mysterious substance that does not interact with light, but is widely believed to permeate the Milky Way and most other galaxies. Murthy is working closely with NASA’s New Horizons team to probe the relationship between dark matter and ultraviolet background radiation, through the Alice spectrometer on board.
What is the New Horizons mission?
The New Horizons spacecraft was launched on 19 January, 2006 on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. The primary objective of the spacecraft was to study Pluto, which it did in 2015 after a nine year voyage. The mission was then reformulated, with New Horizons visiting the distant Kuiper Belt Object (KBO), Arrokoth in early 2019. The spacecraft is now exploring the outer reaches of the Solar System. New Horizons is outfitted with a sophisticated suite of technical scientific instruments, including the Alice ultraviolet spectrometer.
