Report by Manasvi Patil (8A)
On 11th July 2026 students of Vikhe Patil Memorial School from grade 8 and 9 attended the first session of the Second Saturday lecture series conducted by the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune. The speaker Dr. Sarang Shah, is an astrophysicist and a postdoctoral researcher at IUCAA. He recently led an international team that investigated a rare nine-month dimming event for the distant star ASASSN-24fw and proposed that a gas-giant exoplanet or a brown dwarf, with a mass at least 3.4 times that of Jupiter, passed in front of the star.
In this lecture based on astrophysics, Dr. Sarang Shah explained us about the celestial bodies in our solar system and whether they could sustain life or not. We learnt about the classification of different types of stars, their life cycles and how the Sun is a unique star. Dr. Sarang Shah also explained to us about the detection methods of finding exoplanets such as radial velocity and transit photometry. The lecture ended with discussion about the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud which is at the end of our solar system and the mysteries regarding planet 9. In all, it was an enriching experience as we had a lot of interesting insights about astronomy from an astrophysicist himself. Thank you, school, for such a wonderful opportunity.
