Phy-Spark 3.0: Stars, Scopes and Spacetime event at SRM-AP

Students listened in rapt attention as a scientist from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune, Shivaraj Kandhasamy explained how gravity shapes the fabric of spacetime and introduced them to the concept of gravitational waves.

He was speaking at “Phy-Spark 3.0: Stars, Scopes and Spacetime”, organised by SRM University-AP on its campus on Sunday as an outreach initiative for school students drawn from Geetanjali School, Kunchana, K.V. School, Nallapadu and Vijetha School in Guntur.

Mr. Kandasamy walked the students through the historic Michelson-Morley experiment, the design and functioning of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), and the challenges of detecting such incredibly faint signals. His lecture also covered landmark detections, including gravitational waves generated from black hole mergers and binary neutron star collisions.

Expert faculty members Gangireddy Salla, Ashmita Das, and Krishna Prasad Maity from the Department of Physics of SRM AP delivered academic sessions on several intriguing topics such as Telescope: Fundamentals and Designs and Binary Star Systems and General Theory of Relativity. The lectures were followed by a lab visit and live demonstrations of telescopes, binary star experiment using LED bulbs, Michelson interferometer etc., and an interactive session facilitating hands-on experiential learning on astronomical observations, scientific equipment, and the application of ideas they had learned in theory.

The event was coordinated by Pranab Mandal, Gangireddy Salla and Soumyajyoti Biswas of SRM-AP University.