Astronomy · No. 10
The Alaknanda Galaxy
A discovery for the ages
Rashi Jain & Yogesh Wadadekar
Thursday, 8 January 2026 · Wynkk, Aundh
Rashi and Yogesh’s recent discovery of the Alaknanda galaxy has the potential to shake up our understanding of how early galaxies formed after the Big Bang. How was Alaknanda discovered, and what makes it special?
A special extra session.
About the speakers
Rashi Jain is a senior research scholar at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA-TIFR), Pune. After a B.Tech in metallurgical engineering from IIT BHU, she joined NCRA in 2021, where she works on galaxy formation and evolution, using data from space telescopes to study high-redshift galaxies. She also organises stargazing sessions for the public.
Yogesh Wadadekar is an astronomer and Professor at NCRA-TIFR. After a B.Tech from IIT Bombay and a PhD from IUCAA, he spent six years in France and the USA, including work on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at Princeton, and joined NCRA in 2007. His research covers galaxy evolution, large-area sky surveys and machine learning in astrophysics. He leads the development of India’s software contributions to the Square Kilometre Array.
