Margarita Safonova | Indian Institute of Astrophysics (original) (raw)

Videos by Margarita Safonova

We have initiated the High-Altitude Ballooning (HAB) program at IIA, Bangalore, in the year 2011 ... more We have initiated the High-Altitude Ballooning (HAB) program at IIA, Bangalore, in the year 2011 with the primary purpose of developing and flying low-cost scientific payloads on a balloon-borne platform. The main aim is the observations of extended nearby objects (e.g. comets) and of diffuse sources (e.g. zodiacal light or airglow) with wide field of view UV instruments from near space (20 to 30 km). HAB program at IIA also aims at developing and flying low-cost scientific payloads on balloon-borne platforms, and also developing instruments that can operate on a range of near-space platforms, including CubeSats, minisatellites, or even space missions. Our balloon experience has been invaluable as training and verification for our current space activities. We now have several payloads that are either ready for space flight or are planned for future flights.

2 views

This is a talk presented at the virtual 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC),15 Ma... more This is a talk presented at the virtual 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC),15 Mar–19 Mar'21. Short abstract: Planetary Protection Policies (PPP) are purely anthropocentric. In case of forward contamination, the basic concern is that if we bring terrestrial organisms to another world, it will confuse our scientific ascertainment of identifying the indigenous life forms and, second, may in fact completely obliterate the indigenous life. In the case of back contamination, it is the Earth life that could be under the threat of being extinguished, as it would offer no immunity to the extraterrestrial hostile life. This point of view completely ignores the fact that Solar System objects do not exist in isolation. Present-day Solar System is full of dust: remains of asteroids, comets, and impact ejecta. It follows that the whole Solar System is already totally `contaminated’ by the constant interchange of meteoroids, with their water, organics, and possible biota content.

4 views

Papers by Margarita Safonova

Modern Physics Letters A, Nov 30, 2005

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 2019

Galaxy Forum (GF) South America 2020, was held virtually on December 8, 2020 on the opening eve o... more Galaxy Forum (GF) South America 2020, was held virtually on December 8, 2020 on the opening eve of IAU 367 by the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA Hawai’i) with the support of the Instituto de Tecnologías en Detección y Astropartículas (ITeDA, CNEA-CONICET-UNSAM) and IAU. Galaxy Forum is an education and outreach program sponsored by ILOA, an interglobal enterprise incorporated in Hawaii as a non-profit organization to expand human knowledge of the Cosmos through observation from our Moon and to participate in internationally cooperative lunar base build-out.As a IAU-367 associated event, Galaxy Forum featured comments by Dr. Beatriz Garcia and presentations by ILOA Director Steve Durst (ILOA Hawai’i, USA), Marcelo Colazo (CONAE, Argentina); César Gonzalez García (CSIC, Spain); Li Geng (NAOC, China); Santiago Paolantonio (Córdoba Observatory, Argentina) and Margarita Safonova (IIA, India). In this contribution, the overview of the contributions permits an approach t...

Ультрафиолетовый спектральный диапазон (ближний УФ, 180-300 нм; дальний УФ, 115-180 нм) крайне во... more Ультрафиолетовый спектральный диапазон (ближний УФ, 180-300 нм; дальний УФ, 115-180 нм) крайне востребован астрофизиками. Успешные космические проекты, такие как IUE, HST, GALEX, ASTROCAT/UVIT и другие, дали ученым совершенно новые данные для астрофизических исследований. Прямые УФ-изображения неба позволяют проследить морфологию протяженных объектов (планетарных туманностей, остатков сверхновых и т.д.), но эти данные дают очень ограниченную информацию о понимании физических условий (температура, плотность, поле излучения). Спектроскопические наблюдения позволяют изучать локальные физические условия, но обычно только в одной точке протяженной туманности. Спектроскопия, основанная на наблюдениях с помощью спектрографа с длинной щелью, позволяет объединить два этих метода. Для изучения динамики и эволюции протяженных объектов мы предлагаем такой инструмент - SING (Spectroscopic Investigation of Nebular Gas, спектроскопические исследования газа туманностей). Мы планируем установить его...

VizieR Online Data Catalog, May 1, 2020

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2020: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 2020

One of the most exciting parts of the astrophysical spectrum is the ultraviolet, with a greater d... more One of the most exciting parts of the astrophysical spectrum is the ultraviolet, with a greater density of absorption and emission lines than any other part of the electromagnetic spectra. Our primary science objective is to study the physical conditions in extended regions of the sky. These encompass many phases of the ISM, from the hot gas in supernova remnants (SNR) to the warm gas in planetary nebulae to cold gas in molecular clouds including emission lines from hot gas (CIV 1548/1550 Å) and warm gas (NIII 1750Å). SING is a near ultraviolet (NUV) spectrograph which operates in the wavelength range from 1400 Å to 2700Å, with a spectral resolution of about 2Å at 2200 Å. The spectrograph is intended to map nebulae and other extended objects at moderate spatial and spectral resolution in the NUV from a stable platform of the space station – Chinese modular space station (CSS). As the event rate in the UV is low, the spectrograph employs a photon-counting detector because of its low noise performance. In this work, we present the overview of the opto-mechanical design of SING and the estimates of its performance.

Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 2021

Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Mar 1, 2021

The raw data was taken from PHL-EC and other exoplanet catalogs.

Astronomy and Computing, 2018

Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, 2016

We have written a set of routines to convert the Level 1 data from UVIT into scientifically usefu... more We have written a set of routines to convert the Level 1 data from UVIT into scientifically useful photon lists and images. These routines are in the GNU Data Language (GDL) and are compatible with the IDL software package. We use these programs in our own scientific work will continue to update the programs as we gain an understanding of the UVIT instrument.

arXiv: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics, 2016

Study of exoplanets is the holy grail of present research in planetary sciences and astrobiology.... more Study of exoplanets is the holy grail of present research in planetary sciences and astrobiology. Analysis of huge planetary data from space missions such as CoRoT and Kepler is directed ultimately at finding a planet similar to Earth\-the Earth's twin, and answering the question of potential exo-habitability. The Earth Similarity Index (ESI) is a first step in this quest, ranging from 1 (Earth) to 0 (totally dissimilar to Earth). It was defined for the four physical parameters of a planet: radius, density, escape velocity and surface temperature. The ESI is further sub-divided into interior ESI (geometrical mean of radius and density) and surface ESI (geometrical mean of escape velocity and surface temperature). The challenge here is to determine which exoplanet parameter(s) is important in finding this similarity; how exactly the individual parameters entering the interior ESI and surface ESI are contributing to the global ESI. Since the surface temperature entering surface ES...

Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences

2 views

4 views

Modern Physics Letters A, Nov 30, 2005

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 2019

VizieR Online Data Catalog, May 1, 2020

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2020: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 2020

Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 2021

Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Mar 1, 2021

The raw data was taken from PHL-EC and other exoplanet catalogs.

Astronomy and Computing, 2018

Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, 2016

arXiv: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics, 2016

Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

arXiv: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, 2016

Balloon experiments are an economically feasible method of conducting observations in astronomy t... more Balloon experiments are an economically feasible method of conducting observations in astronomy that are not possible from the ground. The astronomical payload may include a telescope, a detector, and a pointing/stabilization system. Determining the attitude of the payload is of primary importance in such applications, to accurately point the detector/telescope to the desired direction. This is especially important in generally unstable lightweight balloon flights. However, the conditions at float altitudes, which can be reached by zero pressure balloons, could be more stable, enabling accurate pointings. We have used the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), placed on a stratospheric zero pressure balloon, to observe 3-axis motion of a balloon payload over a fight time of 4.5 hours, from launch to the float altitude of 31.2 km. The balloon was launched under nominal atmospheric conditions on May 8th 2016, from a Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Balloon Facility, Hyderabad.

ISBN 978-93-5391-879-8, 2019

Comets are fun! The famous comet hunter David Levy once said: “Comets are like cats: they have ta... more Comets are fun! The famous comet hunter David Levy once said:
“Comets are like cats: they have tails and do exactly what they want".
Their remains give us the beautiful phenomena: meteor showers,
noctilucent clouds and zodiacal light. But fun with comets does not
stop at just their pretty images. Their behaviour can be described
mathematically. In this book we present mathematical problems
(with solutions) applicable to comets. We also offer the readers
opportunity to find the speed of the comet themselves by using
real-life telescope images.