The Astronomy Club, well known for their stargazing trips (Skywatches) and undying passion for the wondrous realm of outer space, conducted their first talk of the semester on the 26th of August on Gravitational Waves.
They opened to a crowd of over a hundred twenty enthusiastic students, aflutter with the prospect of learning about the laws governing the observable universe. After much adjustment and time spent in helping the sea of students find suitable places to sit (or stand), the speaker, Om Vaghasia, started off on his quest to unravel the mysteries of the universe.
The talk began with introductions to elementary concepts of gravitation – the way it was initially discovered and thought of in the days of old, right up till the point where Einstein and Newton had relatively demystified it. They spoke of Minkowski’s contributions to the understanding of space-time, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, and Gravitational Waves being a part of Einstein’s understanding of general relativity: how gravitational waves transport energy as gravitational radiation.
Gravitational waves gave rise to gravitational-wave astronomy, which is currently used as a means to collect observational data about black holes, supernovae, neutron stars and the likes. Needless to say, the talk was well received and The Astronomy Club was more than overwhelmed by the response from the students. That said, given the heavy emphasis on theoretical concepts, it probably wouldn’t have appealed as much to those not inclined towards physics. There was an interactive session after the brief talk in which the students posed the questions they had about the subject. There will be many more such talks from them this semester, and Skywatches in the next semester.
New ideas, the patience to follow through with them and their excitement regarding all things related to astronomy is what form the basis of this highly enthusiastic club, and we can be sure to expect to see a lot more of this in the days to come!
The Astronomy Club is:
Executive Board:
Technical Head – Himanshu Kulkarni
HRM – Aditya Upadhyay
PRM – Kriti Agarwal
Co-PRM – Sanidhya Vats
Graphics Head – Austin D’Souza
Admin Board:
Chairperson – Ved Dubhashy
Vice Chair – Kriti Agarwal
General Secretary – Sanidhya Vats
Treasurer – Naseem Yezdan
— Rahul Basu for MTTN
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