Cosmology should stretch beyond the study of galaxies and (extragalactic astronomy) and cosmologists should be open to alternative ideas, cosmologist J.V. Narlikar has said.
He was delivering the Foundation Day Lecture 2012 of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) here on Friday.
In his talk ‘How well do we know our universe-A Historical Perspective on Modern Cosmology’, Mr. Narlikar traced the historical journey of how humankind studied the cosmos.
According to him, the ancient studies were predominantly based on assumptions.
“Speculative assumptions, which were not independently tested, dominates in this field,” said Mr.Narlikar , who is internationally known for his work in cosmology on alternative models to the popularly believed ‘big bang theory’. He is known for the Hoyle-Narliker Theory of Gravity, which he developed with English astronomer Fred Hoyle.
Those working in this field needed to look at cosmology with a different approach while they worked towards finding scientific proof and validations in their study about the universe and galaxy, added the physicist, also founder-director of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune.
