Assam Researcher, Team Find Extremely Rare Radio Stars Hotter Than Sun

A researcher from Assam by the name of Barnali Das, along with her supervisor Professor Poonam Chandra and team, currently are getting a lot of praise for their finding of eight 'exotic' radio stars. However, what makes these finds even more interesting is that all of these eight radio stars are hotter than our own Sun and has stellar wind and unexplainably strong magnetic fields.

This landmark finding made by the National Centre For Astrophysics, Tata Institute Of Fundamental Research, Pune, has also been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

According to the official release, lead author Assamese Barnali Das completed her PhD thesis under Professor Poonam Chandra's supervision at the NCRA. Furthermore, the author and the supervisor were engaged in numerous different research with the goal to characterize the lesser-known class of objects which they called Main-sequence Radio Pulse (MRP) emitters. The team used the improved Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) to find the eight radio stars.

The commendable research work conducted by Professor Chandra, Barnali, and the members of the NCRA team has showcased for the first time that the radio pulses released by MRPs consist huge amount of data related to the stellar magnetosphere.

"I am really happy to let you know about our discovery. First of all this not alone my work, my supervisor Prof Poonam Chandra has played a very active role in our research alongside team. Let me explain about our research. As you know there are so many stars up above of which some are colder and some are hotter than the sun,"

Barnali was quoted as saying by a News18 report.

She also added that the aim of the research was to find stars much hotter than the sun. Barnali furthermore stated that the first MRP was discovered back in 2000 and since then there was notion that these radio stars are very tough to spot.

Who Is Barnali Das?

Researcher Barnali Das originally hails from Assam's Bajali district and has also worked as an intern at Pune's National Centre for Radio Astrophysics in the past. At present, Barnali is a research scholar at Pune's National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).

"I am really happy as my daughter's work has been marked as a significant discovery for our country," Barnali's father Munin Das stated while also adding that their daughter's achievement has made the family, teachers and entire Assam extremely proud.

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