Solar and Stellar Physics

The group is interested in unravelling the physics of the magnetic coupling and dynamics of the solar atmosphere including its role in shaping up the space weather and climate using imaging and spectroscopic observations aided with hydrodynamic, magneto-hydrodynamic simulations, and machine learning. Currently, we are building the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) that will fly onboard Aditya-L1 mission. SUIT, for the first time, will provide continuous full disc observations of the Sun in 200-400 nm radiation using 11 different filters. These filters would probe the photosphere and chromosphere of the solar atmosphere. These observations will further provide a wealth of information and constraints on the magnetic and thermodynamic coupling between the Sun and Earth’s climate.

The IUCAA'STARS group is interested in stellar evolution and pulsation across the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, Galactic archaeology, resolved stellar populations in star clusters and nearby galaxies, and near-field cosmology. The ongoing research is focussed on astronomical distances using stellar standard candles for improving the precision of the cosmic distance ladder and determining the present expansion rate of the Universe. We are involved in several ongoing ground and space-based time-domain surveys and the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory's LSST survey. We are also interested in stellar evolution and pulsation modeling using open-source 1D code in Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) software, and astrostatistics and data science applications in time-domain astronomy.