Meet the scientist who has been chasing the Sun for 30 years

Have you ever been told to 'chase the Sun'? Even if you have, you probably wouldn't have taken it literally. But in 1995, a young PhD student from Kolkata did exactly that. On October 24, when the nation was celebrating Diwali, Dipankar Banerjee boarded an AN-32 aircraft of the Indian Air Force with an unusual mission — to photograph the solar corona during a total solar eclipse. It was the beginning of a journey that would take him across the planet, chasing one of nature's most fascinating spectacles. Three decades later, Prof. Banerjee is one of India's leading solar physicists and the Vice Chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), Thiruvananthapuram. And he is coming to AGORA 2026, the festival of ideas organised by Asianet News, to share his knowledge of the star that makes life on Earth possible. * 30 years of chasing the Sun... How many total solar eclipses can you witness in a lifetime? If you stay in the same place, you may never see one. On average, a total solar eclipse occurs at a particular location only once every 360–400 years. But Prof. Banerjee does not wait for an eclipse to come to where he lives. Instead, he travels to wherever the Moon's shadow falls. His first eclipse expedition in 1995 was followed by many more. If he was on a ferry in the Irish Sea in 1999, he was in Anji, China, 10 years later to study the Sun during another total eclipse. He went to Easter Island, Chile, in 1999 and continued his journey into April 2024, when he travelled to Texas in the USA. This time, the observations had an additional significance. The team planned to compare their ground-based findings with data collected by India's Aditya-L1 solar observatory. For Prof. Banerjee, chasing an eclipse is not merely about witnessing a rare celestial event. It is an opportunity to understand the Sun better. * Meet the Sun chaser at AGORA Along with photographing eclipses all over the world, Prof. Banerjee’s love for the Sun has made him the Chair of India’s first dedicated solar mission, Aditya-L1. Now, you have an opportunity to hear from the scientist who has spent much of his life trying to understand our nearest star. Prof. Dipankar Banerjee will be among the prominent speakers at AGORA 2026, the three-day festival of ideas organised by Asianet News at Kanakakkunnu Palace in Thiruvananthapuram from November 27 to 29. AGORA will bring together experts and thinkers from across the world to discuss ideas that shape our future. And if you have ever wondered what secrets the Sun holds, or how a star millions of kilometres away can affect life on Earth, here is an opportunity to explore those questions. Entry is free, but advance registration is mandatory. https://agora.asianetnews.in