BENGALURU: For any questions you have about black holes, planets, constellations, stars, supernova and other space-related concepts, there will be a scientist available to answer them all on the first Sunday of every month. Titled ‘Ask An Astronomer’, the programme was started by Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium three months ago and is conducted by MY Anand, senior scientific officer.
“It is yet to pick up pace as few people are aware of this programme but we are seeing a decent response nonetheless. 20 to 25 people of all age groups ranging from kids accompanied by parents, to older science enthusiasts utilise this platform to ask any queries they have,” said Pramod Galgali, director of Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, which is administered by the Bangalore Association for Science Education (BASE). Though the planetarium conducts workshops with set themes, they wanted to encourage the general public to ask and enquire about space.
“The workshops and lectures by experts though popular, are restricted to specific topics. With ask an astronomer, people have a platform to ask just about anything. For example, people want to know about blackholes, why pluto is not a planet, kinds of telescopes which they can buy, how space probes work and how scientists collect information through them, etc,” Galgali added.
The director added that science enthusiasts who are already interested in the subject ask about occurrences such as supernovas, wherein bigger stars explode, distributing planetary nebula emissions into space. “Last week, people wanted to know about White dwarfs, where in smaller stars such as the sun cannot sustain its outer shell and disintegrates material into space,” he said, adding that they expect the participation to go up to 50-60 people in the coming months.
This programme precedes the ‘Know Your Stars’ lecture demonstration that has been running for several years. People are introduced to the night sky, taught how to read a star chart, spot important constellatiosns, set up telescopes and more. Ask An Astronomer takes place on the first Sunday of every month between 5.15pm and 6.15pm. Know Your Stars starts from 6.30pm on the same days.