We keep the world in place: Narlikar

pune: renowned astrophysicist and director of the inter university centre for astronomy and astrophysics (iucaa) dr jayant narlikar has been keen to bring to the notice of the general public the danger posed by huge meteorites or comets colliding with the earth. in a riveting lecture to the non resident indians'' parents organisation (nripo), of which he is a member, dr narlikar said the collision of such bodies could endanger the very existence of mankind.such a collision will have an impact several hundred times greater than the nuclear bomb dropped on hiroshima. it is believed that dinosaurs and other species became extinct after such a cosmological event. "astrophysicists keep observing the movement of comets and meteorites and keep records which can help predict when such a collision might occur. this will allow us time to take safety measures," dr narlikar said. he outlined a theory which might help avert such a collision: "we can send a spaceship fitted with a nuclear device towards the comet or meteorite and gently push it out of the earth''s orbit." there was another interesting piece of information for his audience to ponder. if scientists succeed in unravelling the mystery of how the sun produces so much energy without causing an explosion, we will be able to solve our energy problems, he pointed out. he rightly said that if science textbooks contained such interesting information along with a little background on how various scientific inventions were made, children would find studying science more interesting. earlier nripo president madhav paranjpe welcomed the audience and outlined the future plans of nripo which included establishing a link between nris and indian students and adoption of a needy nri family. he explained how the organisation has provided emotional support to parents and helps to tackle problems related to taxes and property. prominent members of nripo were felicitated on the occasion. the organisation has some 1,000 members.