Rohan Murty donates $1 mn to power telescope tech

Family and he donate Rs 6.5 cr to power US telescope with robotic tech at better site; technique in question has already revolutionised astronomy

An innovation in adaptive optics systems, jointly done by California Institute of Technology and the Pune-based Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, is getting a donation from Rohan Murty, son of Infosys Technologies’ ex-chief, N R Narayana Murthy, and his family.

Robo-AO, said to be the world’s only fully robotic adaptive optics system, is reportedly 10 times more efficient that the adaptive optics system presently available in the world. It was earlier used with the 60-inch telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in North San Diego. The hallmark of the technology is that the robotic laser adaptive optics system is used to erase the atmosphere’s blurring effect while capturing data.

Now, the instrument, developed at Caltech, is moving to a new home, the 2.1-metre telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, owned by National Optical Astronomy Observatory, with $1 million (around Rs 6.5 crore) in donation from Murty and his family.

“Budget cuts forced the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which operates the Kitt Peak Observatory for the National Science Foundation, to seek new operators for the observatory’s 2.1-meter telescope. We immediately sent a proposal,” said Shrinivas Kulkarni, Caltech’s John D and Catherine T MacArthur Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science, and director of optical observatories there. He’s also Rohan Murty’s uncle. And, the proposal won, he added.

The funding by Murty and his family would help in operating the observatory for three years. “The larger size of the telescope and the excellent site made for a perfect match between Robo-AO and the 2.1-m telescope,” added Kulkarni.

Murty had a stint at Infosys when his father, Narayana Murthy, returned to Infosys in a second stint as chief executive. He is now busy in pursuing entrepreneurial activities, both out of Bengaluru and Boston. Previously, Murty and his family donated $5.2 million to Harvard University and the Harvard University Press to launch The Murty Classical Library. The latter is helping take Indian classics to the globe by re-launching these books, after translating to English.

“Automating the discovery of the universe impacts one of mankind’s oldest activities, to look up at the heavens and wonder about our place in the universe,” said Murty. “This activity has been the source of inspiration for religion, poetry, literature, science, and culture in general. Hence, I am pleased to support a dedicated telescopic facility for Robo-AO, which will serve as a new frontier for what computer science can do for astronomy and for mankind, in general.”

One of the major projects that Robo-AO undertook was a comprehensive study of stars identified by NASA’s Kepler space telescope as likely to host planets. Robo-AO has discovered one of only two known quadruple star systems containing planets. It has surveyed 3,000 of the nearest stars, searching for multiple star systems.

“As a dedicated facility, Robo-AO on the 2.1-m telescope can undertake other long-term studies, such as monitoring weather on Neptune and large surveys such as tracking and resolving asteroids,” said Kulkarni.

Over the past two decades, adaptive optics has revolutionised astronomy, giving ground-based telescopes the ability to obtain pristine views that previously had been possible only from space. Adaptive systems, now found on all large telescopes, such as the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, send a laser beam into the sky, where the light scatters off air molecules and returns to the telescope, traveling through the same atmospheric turbulence that blurs the telescope’s images. Once a detector measures this blur, a deformable mirror can warp the light in a way that the distortion is precisely cancelled out.

“The Robo-AO team is making one-sixth of its observing time available to the US astronomical community. In addition, we have had discussions with several colleagues at astronomy departments in the US, India, and Europe, with the view of expanding the range of astronomical research that can be undertaken by Robo-AO,” added Kulkarni.