iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Somak Raychaudhury @somakrc.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Recently I sat down with Dr Kinjal Goyal for an episodei her popular audio podcast series “Detangle by Kinjal” to discuss life, classrooms and galaxies Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4HkC... Youtube: youtu.be/_sgXX2n1Kl8?... Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/d...

open.spotify.com

Detangle with Prof Somak Raychaudhury

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Somak Raychaudhury @somakrc.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

My tribute to JVN in the Economic Times, 26 May 2025 m.economictimes.com/opinion/et-c...

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Somak Raychaudhury @somakrc.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Jayant Narlikar stood at the intersection of intellect and imagination, of science and society, of cosmos and conscience. He did not merely observe the universe. He belonged to it. Hindustan Times 21 May 2025 www.pressreader.com/india/hindus...

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Somak Raychaudhury @somakrc.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Having this detector on Indian soil, on the other side of the world from the American observatories, will dramatically improve our ability to localize the sources of gravitational waves www.nature.com/articles/d44...

nature.com

India to begin construction of gravitational wave project

A remote 174-acre tract of land in central India is about to become one of the most sensitive listening posts in the universe

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Reposted by Somak Raychaudhury

Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

An astonishing headline reporting on new observations from a team led to Nikku Madhusudhan claims they’ve found ‘hints of life’ on a planet orbiting a dwarf star some 124 light years away. What’s going on? (1/n) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🔭 🧪

bbc.co.uk

Promising hints of life found on distant planet K2-18b

Scientists find new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.

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Reposted by Somak Raychaudhury

Barack Obama @barackobama.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.

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Somak Raychaudhury @somakrc.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

This was a memorable experience last week at the Coal India Kolkata Literary Meet at the Alipore Horticultural Gardens in Kolkata. Venki Ramakrishnan is a remarkable scientist, humble and brilliant, and it was fun talkimg to him about his new book “Why we Die”. youtu.be/A8OAjGGXuHI

youtu.be

Why We Die

YouTube video by Kolkata Literary Meet

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Somak Raychaudhury @somakrc.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

“ISRO has demonstrated it is good at launching and putting things in orbit, as well as landing. Now, docking is an important part of upcoming missions – and ISRO is now graduating to a very, very significant level…” my comment on the #ISRO #SPADEX mission aje.io/fzul7x

aje.io

India succeeds in historic space docking mission: Why it’s a big deal

Only the US, Russia and China have previously docked in space. The expertise is critical for advanced missions.

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Somak Raychaudhury @somakrc.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

January 4: it’s Perihelion Day today! The Earth's orbit around the Sun is an ellipse. We are closest to the Sun (perihelion) today, January 4, 2025 at 6.58 pm Indian time, when the Earth about 147 million km from the Sun. At aphelion last July 3, 2024, the Earth was 152 million km away.

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Somak Raychaudhury @somakrc.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

Former US President Jimmy Carter passed away last Sunday. Much has been written about his kindness, humility and indomitable spirit. For me, he holds the distinction of having signed the letter that has reached the farthest from Earth (now 25 billion km away, launched on the Voyager in 1977).

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Somak Raychaudhury @somakrc.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

Indian students last year spent $60 billion at foreign Universities, >10x the annual budget of the Indian Government for Higher Education. I discuss in today’s #TheHindu the key areas India must focus on to aspire to become the destination of choice for students worldwide. #AshokaUniversity

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Reposted by Somak Raychaudhury

Anirban @bhalomanush.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

Zakir Hussain's 1987 documentary for the Indian Films Division is a masterpiece that explains the history and structure of Hindustani classical music. With his expertise and narrative style, he guides viewers while visiting many of India’s most beautiful historical sites. youtu.be/Yj3XjNxCO5I?...

youtu.be

Khayal - A Musical Journey - Hindustani Classical Music (1987) - Narrated by Zakir Hussain

YouTube video by Xavi Ganjam

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Somak Raychaudhury @somakrc.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

The Icarus of our age: #NASA #ParkerSolarProbe will fly closest to the Sun-only 9 times the Sun's radius - the nearest any human-made object has ever been to our closest star.

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Somak Raychaudhury @somakrc.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

#Nature Science index finds #Kolkata to be the top Indian city for scientific research, closely followed by Bengaluru. Apart from the long research tradition of the City, many of the best students still come to academia. In today’s #TimesofIndia epaper.indiatimes.com/article-shar...

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Reposted by Somak Raychaudhury

Jasmine 🌌🔭 @astrojaz.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

galaxies are so beautiful 🌌

A massive spiral galaxy fills the image. A bright, yellow galactic core glows at the center, surrounded by spiral arms studded with pink stars and dark lanes of dust.

$A spiral galaxy, seen face-on to the viewer. The bright center of the galaxy is crossed by a glowing bar, and it is surrounded by tightly wound spiral arms, forming a circular shape with relatively clear edges. Faraway galaxies are visible around it, along with a few bright stars, on a dark background. One star to the right of the galaxy is very large and extremely bright with long diffraction spikes.$ $Slightly oblique view of a spiral galaxy with a glowing yellow central core and two spiral arms that wind clockwise from the center. The arms consist of dark reddish-brown dust trails that are vein-like and hazy clouds of blue stars. The outer regions of the galaxy appear bluer, with bright clusters of blue stars sparsely lining the outer edges of the spiral arms. There are a few foreground stars that have bright white or blue cores with colorful fuzzy halos and four diffraction spikes radiating from their centers. Scattered across the dark background are thousands of faint objects that vary in size, shape, and color. Most appear as small dots, ovals, or lines in different shades of orange, red, and blue.$ $A bright, white galactic core shines near the center of the image with a faint bar of stars extending from it, diagonally to the right. Faint, hazy spiral arms encircle the core, with several distant stars and bright blue foreground stars with diffraction spikes scattered throughout the image, all against black space.$

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Reposted by Somak Raychaudhury

SpaceAustralia.com @spaceaustralia.com · 03/12/2024

MeerKAT Pulsar Timing Array team has announced evidence for the Gravitational Wave Background (GWB)! @cosmicrami.com had a chat with lead author @astromattmiles.bsky.social from @ozgrav.bsky.social www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/mpta... 📸 C. Knox/Swinburne/OzGrav/SARAO #SpaceAustralia 🔭🧪 1/3

Graphic that shows a single dish from the MeerKAT telescope, and it is silhouetted across a background of illustrated supermassive black holes and space-time, represented by a warped grid.

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Reposted by Somak Raychaudhury

Jwst Feed @jwstfeed.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

JWST image of NGC 3596. Processed NIRCam (white) + MIRI (red) data by @yuvharpaz.bsky.social nerdculture.de/@yuvharpaz/1... 🔭 🧪

A stunning infrared image of the spiral galaxy NGC 3596, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. The galaxy's intricate spiral arms wind outwards from a bright central core, filled with countless stars. The image reveals a wealth of detail, including dark dust lanes and bright star-forming regions that glow in shades of red and pink.

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Somak Raychaudhury @somakrc.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

I am amazed that hundreds of students managed to sing together in tune.

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Somak Raychaudhury @somakrc.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Today A R Rahman visited #AshokaUniversity We persuaded him to interact with the students, and even though this is just before the exams, 1500 students showed up. ARR patiently answered many questions, and then, in answer to a question, he walked over to the piano, and magic happened.

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Somak Raychaudhury @somakrc.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

#IdeaExchange at the #IndianExpress - I had a great conversation, moderated by Amitabh Sinha. indianexpress.com/article/indi...

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