ESP Biography



SUKRIT RANJAN, MIT junior focusing in the space sciences




Major: Physics

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: Not available.

Picture of Sukrit Ranjan

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Sukrit is a junior at MIT, majoring in physics, minoring in astronomy, with passing interests in economics, history, programming and math. His academic focus in in the space sciences. While in high school, Sukrit did a great deal of work with NASA, with experiments he worked on winning flight opportunities on suborbital rockets, microgravity drop towers, zero-g aircraft and the Space Shuttle. In college, Sukrit' has shifted focus to astronomy. He has done work on supermassive stars, Martian clouds and exoplanet atmospheres. He has been involved in teaching for the last four years, most recently teaching at an astronomy program in Spain. He has found his teaching experiences to be among his most rewarding, and looks forward to sharing his love of astronomy at HSSP this year.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

S2294: Hands-on Astronomy: Observing with Telescopes in Spark! Spring 2009 (Mar. 07, 2009)
Use telescopes to explore the skies! We will learn how to set up and use MIT's 8-inch teaching telescopes. We will then go onto the roof and use the telescopes to examine stars, planets, and (if the night is good) nebulae and star clusters, including detailed observing of the Moon and Saturn. We'll finish by warming up with hot chocolate and chocolate poptarts*. Class will be from 6-7, running until the end of Spark. From 7-9 will be open observing; all are welcome to observe! Warm clothes are a must for all attendees, including gloves and a hat; a good rule for observing is to dress as if the weather is 20 F colder than it actually is. If you are late and/or want to come to open observing, come to 37-292 and/or have Spark personnel call the teachers. *MIT observing tradition -- we'll tell you about it!


S1509: Hands-on Observational Astronomy in HSSP Fall 2008 (Sep. 13, 2008)
Introduction to hands-on astronomy. Learn about astronomical objects and find them yourself using 8" telescopes! Each class will consist of a classroom portion where you will learn about various astronomical topics, and an observation portion where you will learn to operate an amateur telescope to view objects in the night sky. Topics include: constellations, the Moon, planets, stars, star clusters, galaxies, telescope optics, CCDs, and how observation drives science in astronomy. The course is currently planned for 3 hours on Saturday evenings (1 hour class, 2 hours observation). Precise hours will be scheduled on the first day of class based on student and instructor availability. The first day of class will be held at the regular scheduled HSSP time. There will also be an optional field trip to Wellesley observatory near the end of the term.


Beyond Apollo: Space Exploration in the Modern Era in SPLASH (2006)
The moonshot and the Apollo program were magnificent successes, catapulting us to the moon in close to a decade. However, ...