113, School of Arts and Sciences
The Earth and our Solar system lie in a corner of our Milky Way Galaxy, rotating around the Galactic Centre. The dynamics of our galaxy are governed by the powerful galactic center called Sagittarius A*, similar is the case for billions of other galaxies in the Universe. What is the nature of the mysterious object Sgr A*, and how does it operate? This is one of the most fundamental questions in Cosmology today. On May 12, 2022, the Event Horizon Telescope revealed detailed and intriguing images of Sgr A*, showing the Shadow of a singularity or a Black hole. The implications for profound issues of Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe, and a future Unified Theory of Physics, namely Quantum Gravity, are indicated. In this lecture, I will discuss these fascinating developments that cite my work in detail.
Professor Pankaj was a Senior Professor at the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, and Provost at the Charotar University of Science and Technology (CHARUSAT) before joining Ahmedabad University. His research interests are general relativity and cosmology. He has made fundamental contributions to black hole physics and gravitation theory. His extensive analysis of general relativistic gravitational collapse has been widely recognised for providing significant insights into the final fate of massive collapsing stars in the universe, the formation of space-time singularities, and cosmic censorship. He has worked with eminent scientists like Professor Stephen Hawking, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Dr Jayant Narlikar, among others.
