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Professor Tomaso Belloni at the talk. (Anindya Shankar Ray)
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They are the dark secrets of the universe, from which there’s no escape. The first session at the Calcutta Literary Meet on Monday had science as the focus, with the topic “The Mystery of Black Holes”.
Professor Tomaso Belloni, associate astronomer at Milan’s Brera Observatory, attempted to demystify the subject to an audience comprising mostly interested laypersons at the session organised by the Italian Centre of Culture on the penultimate day of the meet.
“Those stars can explode and the radiation can shoot off in any direction — even towards the Earth, and leave a lasting impact, like an earthquake, or bring down the ionosphere,” Belloni told his listeners.
Sandip Chakraborty, a senior professor at SN Bose National Centre for Basic Science, enlightened the relatively young audience about the Italian professor, an expert in the field of galactic X-ray astronomy, while Joel Melchiori, the Italian consul-general in Calcutta, looked on.
“Black holes can’t be seen. The only possibility to check on their existence is with the help of the radiation or X-rays coming off it,” Belloni said at the start of the lecture, before moving on to explain the visible processes behind the changes in the sky. Using animated movies and slides, he made his point clear: “The sky is absolutely not quiet, it is a really restless universe.”
Belloni brought the session to an end with news of the Astrosat, India’s first dedicated astronomy satellite, which is scheduled to be launched on board the PSLV this year, and for which, he said, he helped write the software program.
For city-based hotelier Deval Tibrewala, it was a fascinating experience. “I found this session to be quite offbeat and interesting and therefore decided to attend. I have also been to the Jaipur Literature Festival, and I can say that the Calcutta Lit Meet is doing brilliant for its first time. I don’t need to go to Jaipur any more.”
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