Tag Archives: ganti

History of the Cosmic Web

Posted on January 1, 2025 by ST Editors

by S. Prasad Ganti On a recent long flight to India, I saw a documentary titled “How does the Universe work”. I am summarizing the notes I took down from this fascinating piece. How did the universe evolve from such … Continue reading →

Posted in January 2025, Sidereal Times | Tagged , | Leave a comment

X-Ray Telescopes

Posted on December 2, 2024 by ST Editors

by S. Prasad Ganti All the X-ray telescopes are in space. None on the ground. There are optical, infra-red, radio telescopes on the ground, but not X-rays. For the simple reason that X-rays coming from outer space cannot penetrate the … Continue reading →

Posted in December 2024, Sidereal Times | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Hubble Tension

Posted on November 2, 2024 by ST Editors

by S. Prasad Ganti Edwin Hubble was the legendary astronomer of the early twentieth century. Credited with the discoveries of the Andromeda galaxy and the expansion of the universe. With these, he brought the concept of galaxies to our lexicon. … Continue reading →

Posted in November 2024, Sidereal Times | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Waves in the Cosmic Sea

Posted on September 30, 2024 by ST Editors

by S. Prasad Ganti BAO (Baryon Acoustic Oscillation) is a mouthful of an acronym. It interested me because of its relation to our baby Universe. That was a time when our Universe was less than 380,000 years old. With no … Continue reading →

Posted in October 2024, Sidereal Times | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Flavors of Gravitational Waves

Posted on September 3, 2024 by ST Editors

by S. Prasad Ganti In 2015, gravity waves were detected by LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) from the locations at Louisiana and Washington states. This proved one of the significant predictions of Einstein’s General theory of relativity. Generated by very … Continue reading →

Posted in September 2024, Sidereal Times | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Darkness at Noon

Posted on May 5, 2024 by ST Editors

by S. Prasad Ganti Millions of people made long journeys across the US to catch a glimpse of the total solar eclipse on April 8th 2024. The totality lasted up to 4 mins. First I will write about the logistics … Continue reading →

Posted in May 2024, Sidereal Times | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Stellar Nurseries

Posted on April 1, 2024 by ST Editors

by S. Prasad Ganti Stellar nurseries are places in a galaxy where star formation is taking place. Very much like all living beings, stars are born and die. Huge clouds of gaseous hydrogen, embedded with dust particles,  are the source … Continue reading →

Posted in April 2024, Sidereal Times | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Expansion of the Universe

Posted on March 3, 2024 by ST Editors

by S. Prasad Ganti A recent article in the journal “Nature” intrigued me. It stated that the accelerated expansion of the Universe, attributed to dark energy currently, could be happening due to merger with other Universes. A very thought provoking … Continue reading →

Posted in March 2024, Sidereal Times | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Sun God Aditya

Posted on February 4, 2024 by ST Editors

by S. Prasad Ganti In Hindu mythology, Aditya is the Sun god, something akin to Ra in Egyptian mythology. Studying the Sun has been occurring for most of human history. In the last few decades done using telescopes – both … Continue reading →

Posted in February 2024, Sidereal Times | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Mission Afterthought

Posted on January 1, 2024 by ST Editors

by S. Prasad Ganti Different space missions have different goals. The scripting of operations is done accordingly. For example, the Hubble Space Telescope had the goal of looking at different parts of  the sky and capturing images of the stars … Continue reading →

Posted in January 2024, Sidereal Times | Tagged , , | Leave a comment