who proved Einstein’s theory wrong
Homecoming for Odisha born NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientist who proved Einstein’s theory wrong .
Almost a year after proving Albert Einstien wrong by measuring the mass of a star, Odisha born astronomer Kailash Sahu is back in his home town in Belagaon panchayat in Ganjam district. The scientist working at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STSI) of NASA is now spending bulk of his time at his village interacting with people and school students.
Recalling his childhood memories, Sahu said that his village did not have electricity and it was tough times then. After completing his higher education from Berhampur University in 1977, he then went to IIT Kharagpur and then to other prominent universities abroad and eventually became NASA scientist in new space discovery.
Basing on the sun’s mass, we calculated the mass of the star which was two-thirds of the mass of the sun,” said Sahu.
While interacting with the students in his school, Sahu is spending time showing demos about his achievements and encouraging them to dream big and work hard in life.
Not only students, friends and other villagers expressed their happiness over Sahu’s return to the village.
“We are really proud of Kailash as he has brought laurels for the village, state and the entire country,” said Subhash Chandra Sahu, brother.
Sahu is known as Planet Hunter in the astronomy fraternity since he has discovered 16 new planets in 2006. Moreover, he became a much talked about personality after he calculated the mass of dwarf star Stein 2051B, the sixth-nearest white dwarf star to Sun.
He has grown up watching the night sky. Today the world is looking up to him. Hemanta Pradhan retraces the journey of Kailash Chandra Sahufrom a nondescript Ganjam village to one of the planet’s leading astronomers
.
There are more things in heaven and earth than can be dreamt of in our philosophy. But his is a different philosophy. One where the heavens crumble, twist, turn and stretch out over sheets of calculations, where earth is but a speck in the scheme of a gigantic design. Kailash Chandra Sahu’s days are like any one of ours — he wakes up in the morning, does his yoga, and takes the odd trek to the Annapurna Base Camp. But it’s his journey, from Belagaon in Ganjam district to the Space Telescope Science Institute that truly does justice to the word astronomical.
A child in a corner of the world, Sahu’s village had no power. The nights were dark. So a young boy looked up the only source of light — at the stars. “It may seem strange, but the rural and unpolluted atmosphere of my village contributed a lot to my journey. My father had the habit of spending some time under the sky at night after dinner in the front porch of our home. As an astronomer, I often go to far-off places like the Andes Mountains in Chile or the Rocky mountains in Canary Islands, where we have large telescopes because of the superb sky conditions there. But the rural atmosphere of my village offered a wonderful view of the night sky on a daily basis,” says the astronomer from his home in Baltimore, US.
With brothers who were inclined to figuring out the reason behind natural occurrences, a young Kailash, though deeply enamoured with science, had no way of channelling his desire to study the skies in Odisha. “I was generally interested in Physics, so I took solid-state physics during my MSc. (Physics) from Berhampur University. I secured first position in MSc (Physics) in the University. Then I joined IIT, Kharagpur to do my PhD on piezoelectricity,” says Sahu.
Kailash Chandra Sahu near Gemini telescope in Chile.Gemini is operated by a partnership of five countries including the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Chile.
He has grown up watching the night sky. Today the world is looking up to him. Hemanta Pradhan retraces the journey of Kailash Chandra Sahufrom a nondescript Ganjam village to one of the planet’s leading astronomers
There are more things in heaven and earth than can be dreamt of in our philosophy. But his is a different philosophy. One where the heavens crumble, twist, turn and stretch out over sheets of calculations, where earth is but a speck in the scheme of a gigantic design. Kailash Chandra Sahu’s days are like any one of ours — he wakes up in the morning, does his yoga, and takes the odd trek to the Annapurna Base Camp. But it’s his journey, from Belagaon in Ganjam district to the Space Telescope Science Institute that truly does justice to the word astronomical.
A child in a corner of the world, Sahu’s village had no power. The nights were dark. So a young boy looked up the only source of light — at the stars. “It may seem strange, but the rural and unpolluted atmosphere of my village contributed a lot to my journey. My father had the habit of spending some time under the sky at night after dinner in the front porch of our home. As an astronomer, I often go to far-off places like the Andes Mountains in Chile or the Rocky mountains in Canary Islands, where we have large telescopes because of the superb sky conditions there. But the rural atmosphere of my village offered a wonderful view of the night sky on a daily basis,” says the astronomer from his home in Baltimore, US.
With brothers who were inclined to figuring out the reason behind natural occurrences, a young Kailash, though deeply enamoured with science, had no way of channelling his desire to study the skies in Odisha. “I was generally interested in Physics, so I took solid-state physics during my MSc. (Physics) from Berhampur University. I secured first position in MSc (Physics) in the University. Then I joined IIT, Kharagpur to do my PhD on piezoelectricity,” says Sahu.
It was shortly afterwards that Sahu met the two people who would play the most important roles in his life. National Science Talent Scholar Hemant Joglekar who set Sahu on the path to joining the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, and Sahu’s wife Meenakshi, who he would meet at PRL.
“After my PhD, I went to Paris for a post-doctoral fellowship. I spent the following five years as a post-doctoral fellow in the Netherlands during which I served as a support astronomer at an observatory in Canary Islands. Then I took up a support astronomer position at the Astrophysics Institute in Tenerife, Canary Islands. I think I wrote an important paper here, which shaped my subsequent career,” says Sahu with startling humility.
It turns out that the ‘important’ paper he wrote would shatter beliefs in astronomy, curving the path of studies in the discipline itself.
Almost a year after proving Albert Einstien wrong by measuring the mass of a star, Odisha born astronomer Kailash Sahu is back in his home town in Belagaon panchayat in Ganjam district. The scientist working at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STSI) of NASA is now spending bulk of his time at his village interacting with people and school students.
Recalling his childhood memories, Sahu said that his village did not have electricity and it was tough times then. After completing his higher education from Berhampur University in 1977, he then went to IIT Kharagpur and then to other prominent universities abroad and eventually became NASA scientist in new space discovery.
Basing on the sun’s mass, we calculated the mass of the star which was two-thirds of the mass of the sun,” said Sahu.
While interacting with the students in his school, Sahu is spending time showing demos about his achievements and encouraging them to dream big and work hard in life.
Not only students, friends and other villagers expressed their happiness over Sahu’s return to the village.
“We are really proud of Kailash as he has brought laurels for the village, state and the entire country,” said Subhash Chandra Sahu, brother.
Sahu is known as Planet Hunter in the astronomy fraternity since he has discovered 16 new planets in 2006. Moreover, he became a much talked about personality after he calculated the mass of dwarf star Stein 2051B, the sixth-nearest white dwarf star to Sun.
He has grown up watching the night sky. Today the world is looking up to him. Hemanta Pradhan retraces the journey of Kailash Chandra Sahufrom a nondescript Ganjam village to one of the planet’s leading astronomers
.
There are more things in heaven and earth than can be dreamt of in our philosophy. But his is a different philosophy. One where the heavens crumble, twist, turn and stretch out over sheets of calculations, where earth is but a speck in the scheme of a gigantic design. Kailash Chandra Sahu’s days are like any one of ours — he wakes up in the morning, does his yoga, and takes the odd trek to the Annapurna Base Camp. But it’s his journey, from Belagaon in Ganjam district to the Space Telescope Science Institute that truly does justice to the word astronomical.
A child in a corner of the world, Sahu’s village had no power. The nights were dark. So a young boy looked up the only source of light — at the stars. “It may seem strange, but the rural and unpolluted atmosphere of my village contributed a lot to my journey. My father had the habit of spending some time under the sky at night after dinner in the front porch of our home. As an astronomer, I often go to far-off places like the Andes Mountains in Chile or the Rocky mountains in Canary Islands, where we have large telescopes because of the superb sky conditions there. But the rural atmosphere of my village offered a wonderful view of the night sky on a daily basis,” says the astronomer from his home in Baltimore, US.
With brothers who were inclined to figuring out the reason behind natural occurrences, a young Kailash, though deeply enamoured with science, had no way of channelling his desire to study the skies in Odisha. “I was generally interested in Physics, so I took solid-state physics during my MSc. (Physics) from Berhampur University. I secured first position in MSc (Physics) in the University. Then I joined IIT, Kharagpur to do my PhD on piezoelectricity,” says Sahu.
Kailash Chandra Sahu near Gemini telescope in Chile.Gemini is operated by a partnership of five countries including the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Chile.
He has grown up watching the night sky. Today the world is looking up to him. Hemanta Pradhan retraces the journey of Kailash Chandra Sahufrom a nondescript Ganjam village to one of the planet’s leading astronomers
There are more things in heaven and earth than can be dreamt of in our philosophy. But his is a different philosophy. One where the heavens crumble, twist, turn and stretch out over sheets of calculations, where earth is but a speck in the scheme of a gigantic design. Kailash Chandra Sahu’s days are like any one of ours — he wakes up in the morning, does his yoga, and takes the odd trek to the Annapurna Base Camp. But it’s his journey, from Belagaon in Ganjam district to the Space Telescope Science Institute that truly does justice to the word astronomical.
A child in a corner of the world, Sahu’s village had no power. The nights were dark. So a young boy looked up the only source of light — at the stars. “It may seem strange, but the rural and unpolluted atmosphere of my village contributed a lot to my journey. My father had the habit of spending some time under the sky at night after dinner in the front porch of our home. As an astronomer, I often go to far-off places like the Andes Mountains in Chile or the Rocky mountains in Canary Islands, where we have large telescopes because of the superb sky conditions there. But the rural atmosphere of my village offered a wonderful view of the night sky on a daily basis,” says the astronomer from his home in Baltimore, US.
With brothers who were inclined to figuring out the reason behind natural occurrences, a young Kailash, though deeply enamoured with science, had no way of channelling his desire to study the skies in Odisha. “I was generally interested in Physics, so I took solid-state physics during my MSc. (Physics) from Berhampur University. I secured first position in MSc (Physics) in the University. Then I joined IIT, Kharagpur to do my PhD on piezoelectricity,” says Sahu.
It was shortly afterwards that Sahu met the two people who would play the most important roles in his life. National Science Talent Scholar Hemant Joglekar who set Sahu on the path to joining the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, and Sahu’s wife Meenakshi, who he would meet at PRL.
“After my PhD, I went to Paris for a post-doctoral fellowship. I spent the following five years as a post-doctoral fellow in the Netherlands during which I served as a support astronomer at an observatory in Canary Islands. Then I took up a support astronomer position at the Astrophysics Institute in Tenerife, Canary Islands. I think I wrote an important paper here, which shaped my subsequent career,” says Sahu with startling humility.
It turns out that the ‘important’ paper he wrote would shatter beliefs in astronomy, curving the path of studies in the discipline itself.
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