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Seminar/ Colloquium

Home  »  Colloquium   »   Distance and Dynamics of Molecular Clouds

Distance and Dynamics of Molecular Clouds

Date: Thursday, 18th April 2024
Time & Venue: 5:30 PM, LH, UG Lab Complex, Permanent Campus 
Speaker: Prof. Maheswar Gopinathan, Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore
Title: Distance and Dynamics of Molecular Clouds
Abstract: The Galaxy is a dynamic environment. Dense molecular clouds residing in it are regions of interstellar medium of gas and dust where a new generation of stars are found to form. These dense molecular clouds should be in motion set by various processes occurring in the Galaxy. Knowledge of their position, distance and three components of velocities is vital to understand their dynamics. Distance is one of the most important fundamental parameters to estimate all other physical properties like the size and mass of molecular clouds. Estimating the distance to molecular clouds is a tough task and astronomers have explored several different techniques. In this talk, I will discuss various techniques used to estimate distances and motion of molecular
clouds in the Galaxy.
About the speaker: Prof. Gopinathan completed his Ph.D. on the  “Study of Galactic Star Formation” from IIA Bangalore in 2005. He Joined as a

faculty at ARIES in 2006; subsequently, he did a postdoctoral fellowship at Korea  Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), South Korea, from 2007 – 2009.  He joined IIA as an associate professor in 2017 and is currently a Professor there.  He has significantly contributed to several national and international developmental  activities, including India’s largest optical telescope, 3.6m DOT at ARIES, Nainital.  He is currently the work package manager of the upcoming international observing facility,  The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), a DST mega-science project. His major research interests are

1. Estimation of distances to molecular clouds
2. Magnetic field measurements of molecular clouds using polarimetry
3. Multi-wavelength study of triggered star-forming regions