Scientists from various institutions throughout the country will discuss some long standing scientific problems in observational astronomy at a national workshop titled ‘Astrophysical jets and observational facilities: National perspective’. 200 scientists and young researchers from over more than 30 institutes all over India will be part of the workshop which will be held between April 5 to April 9, 2021.
The participants will deliberate on jets/jetted outflow from various classes of objects, including stars to big galaxies. The worshop will also brainstorm on how the community could contribute to address these long-standing scientific problems by using existing and upcoming Indian observational facilities.
The 5-day workshop is being organised by Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Govt. of India along with Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) Bengaluru, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Mumbai, Raman Research Institute (RRI) Bengaluru, National Centre for Radio Astrophysics Pune, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics Kolkata, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCA) Pune, Physics Research Laboratory (PRL) Ahmedabad and ISRO Headquarters, Bengaluru. The entire workshop will be hosted through online platforms.
Astrophysical jets are largely known as outflows of ionized matter and are observationally seen as an extended beam of emission among a variety of sources, both Galactic and extra-galactic. Underlying physics behind these enigmatic sources are one of the least understood areas and needs more attention to improve present knowledge about such interesting sources.
In India, a sizable fraction of astronomers work towards astrophysical sources like Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs), Supernovae, X-ray binaries and so on and make use of a range of multi-wavelength observational facilities. Also, in the near future, ARIES, along with other leading institutions in the country, plans to develop a new generation of large observational facilities to address frontiers of the subject during the coming decades using both indigenous efforts and through international collaborations.
This national workshop aims to bring all the stakeholders together to discuss the subject matter at length and review the progress made so far and the proposed path ahead to strengthen the Indian community at large. The workshop is being organized as a part of the Golden Jubilee Commemoration Year of the Department of Science and Technology (1971-2021) and also one of the first national events to celebrate the 75 years of Independence–‘Azaadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’.
Balaji Subramanian 
Sahana A 
Divith Narendra