Home Uncategorized Why a crater on the moon is named ‘Mitra’? – Livemint

Why a crater on the moon is named ‘Mitra’? – Livemint

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New Delhi: On 23 August, Chandrayaan-2 captured images of various craters on the moon while passing over its north polar region. Of the various craters, it spotted one called ‘Mitra’- an impact based crater named after noted Indian physicist Sisir Kumar Mitra.

The name was given by Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN), part of International Astronomical Union (IAU), after a successful review in 1970, seven years after the death of Mitra. The announcement came at a time, when India’s space programme was just beginning to take shape.

Established nearly 100 years ago, IAU is the world’s largest professional body for astronomers from more than 100 countries.

Typically, members of an appropriate IAU task group suggest names when the first images of the surface of a planet or satellite is obtained but as higher resolution images become available, a specific name is recommended. The suggested names are reviewed by the task force which submits it to the Working Group to take a final call based on votes.

Thousands of features discovered on the moon have been named after noted scientists, to honour their unparalleled contribution to science – US astronomer Daniel Kirkwood, German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld, and Dr Vikram Sarabhai, father of India’s space programme to name a few.

Awarded Padma Bhushan in 1962, Mitra was a doyen of Indian science, who led the research in ionosphere–the upper region of the atmosphere–and radiophysics. He was the first to introduce the teaching of radio communication in India. Mitra transmitted radio programmes from his laboratory at the University College of Science at Calcutta as early as 1926.

“It was for the first time, that an amateur radio station was broadcasting regular programmes in India, until the Indian Broadcasting Company was formed in 1927, which was later designated as All India Radio”, notes a paper published then in peer-reviewed journal Current Science.

At a time, when studies on ionosphere were largely going on in England and US at high altitudes, Mitra led the research in a sub-tropcial country like India highlighting that it would be considerably different from those of high altitude in particular with regard to thunderstorms.

His book, ‘Upper Atmosphere’ published in 1947 is still considered the Bible for research workers in the field of ionosphere.

In 1950s, he advocated space research and high altitude rocket research programmes which had been successfully conducted by US and USSR. Soon after his death in 1963, India set up rocket and launching stations near the geomagnetic equatorial line and a large number of rockets and satellites were fired, bringing invaluable information of the upper atmosphere and beyond.

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