Name Raman Prinja | Role Astronomer | |
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Books Night Sky Watcher, Stars, To the Planets and Beyo, Galaxies and the Runaway, Stars and the Dust that Made | ||
PiTV Interviews: Prof. Raman Prinja
Prof. Raman K. Prinja is an astronomer, professor and author. He is professor of astrophysics at University College London (UCL) and has been awarded the Pol and Christiane Swings research prize by the Royal Academy of Belgium and the UCL Faculty Teacher Award.
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Research
Prof. Prinja's area of research includes studies of outflows at the extremes of stellar evolution. Current projects aim to investigate the nature of mass-loss via stellar winds in a broad range of astrophysical settings, including: the structure of fast outflows from the central stars of planetary nebulae, mass-loss, clumping and the origin of structure in the winds of luminous OB stars, accretion-disc outflows in cataclysmic variables and, the origin and nature of mass outflows from young classical T Tauri stars. The work relates to many fundamental astrophysical processes, including radiation hydrodynamics and plasma physics, accretion discs, the evolution of stars, the dynamics and enrichment of the interstellar medium, star formation, and the functioning of galaxies. The studies are based on line-synthesis analyses coupled with multi-wavelength data sets, spanning far-UV, optical and near-IR spectroscopy, plus radio and mm observations.
Publications
Prinja has written over 150 research papers.
He is the author of popular science books Understanding the Universe, Visions of the Universe, Wonders of the Planets and Stars: A Journey through stellar birth, life and death and has written a series of astronomy books for children, including his latest books, Wonders of the Planets, Science Crazy, The Universe Rocks and Night Sky Watcher.