A planetary scientist from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) working at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has found that the planet Saturn acts as a "diffused mirror" for solar X-rays.
The revelation by Anil Bhardwaj, who is on the prestigious National Academy of Science Fellowship at the NASA's Marshall Space Flight Centre, Huntsville, Albama, has solved another mystery of this ringed planet.
Bhardwaj, who is also actively involved in the ISRO's ambitious Chandrayaan-I mission, told HindustanTimes.com: "These findings imply we could use giant planets like Saturn and Jupiter as remote-sensing tools. By reflecting solar activity back to us, these planets could help us monitor X-ray flaring on portions of the Sun facing away from the Earth's space satellites."
The studies by the team of NASA scientist led by Bhardwaj, which used the prestigious Chandra X-ray Observatory of the space agency, revealed that the ringed planet might act as a mirror reflecting explosive activity from the Sun.
Bhardwaj, who came to US on this prestigious fellowship, in January 2004, was at the Space Physics Laboratory of the ISRO's Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, Trivendrum.
He did his B.Sc. (Hons) and M.Sc. in Physics from Lucknow University and the Ph.D. in Physics (Space and Planetary Science) from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, before joining ISRO in 1993 as a senior research scientist.