Indian-Bitish astronomer physicist Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan and his team have identified the possible signs of foreign life on a distant planet called K2–18B at the University of Cambridge. With the help of NASA’s James Web Space Telescope (JWST), the team detected the presence of Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS) and Dimethyl Dyulfide (DMDS) gases, which are particularly notable because they are manufactured by seaweeds present in the sea.
Dr. Who is Nikku Madhusuun?
Born in 1980 in India, Dr. Madhusudhan earned his B.Tech. Degree from Indian Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi. Later, he followed his Masachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) along with his master. In 2009, his PhD thesis was about studying the atmosphere of planets outside our solar system, called Extrasolor planets.
Following his PhD, he held several positions as a postdotoral researcher at MIT, Princeton University and Yale University, where he was a YCAA Award PostDoctoral Fellow. In 2013, he joined the University of Cambridge and spent four years, working as a university lecturer in astrophysics. He was promoted to a reader in Astrophysics and Exoplanetary Science in 2017. He currently serves as a professor of astrophysics and exoplanetary science.
He came up with the idea of Hyssian planets, which is considered the best class of planets to look for life. The atmosphere of Hycean planets is rich in hydrogen, and there are oceans below it. His research in his research, his atmosphere, interiors and how they were formed. His work involves the discovery of Hyxian Worlds, Sub-Neptunes and Biosignatcher. He also works on radiation transfer for exoplanets, planetary chemistry and atmospheric recovery methods with the help of HST, JWST, and large ground-based telescopes.
In 2012, he studied a planet called 55 Cancri E, which is larger than the Earth, and suggested that it could have carbon -containing interior. In 2014, he led a team, which measured the water level in three warm juices and found less water than expected. In 2017, it was a part of the team that detected titanium oxide in the atmosphere of Wasp -19B. In 2020, he studied the K2–18B and found that the water might be present on its surface.
Dr. Madhusudhan has been recognized with many appreciation, such as the EAS Merrack Award in theoretical Astronomy (2019) (2019) Pilkington Award (2019), IUPAP Young Scientist Medal in Astrophysics (2016), and ASI Venu Bappu Gold Medal (2014).
