August 16, 2023
An asteroid has been named after Aswin Sekhar, India’s first professional meteor scientist. Sekhar was bestowed with this honour by the International Astronomical Union at the Asteroids Comets Meteors Conference held in Arizona, USA, in June. Before Sekhar, this honour had been conferred on only five other Indians including famous Indian astronomer and physicist Vikram Sarabhai and well-known Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. Sekhar currently works as an astrophysicist with the Paris Observatory in France and his work is focused on meteor stream dynamics and forecasting meteor showers.
Image Source: ras.ac.uk
