Aswin Sekhar – doing things differently. And doing them well.
Recognizing that significant meteor shower outbursts are frequently missed due to localized bad weather or limited camera network coverage, Dr. Sekhar played a crucial role in developing the "Mobile Observation of METeor" (MoMET) device.
: In 2025, he became the first Indian elected to the leadership committees of both the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) London and the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Commission in Meteor Science.
Currently based at the Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED) at the University of Oslo, Norway, Sekhar is recognized as an active Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS) and an individual member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Academic Background and Professional Affiliations
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At the RAS, he serves on the Membership Committee, a role that involves vetting and recommending new researchers to become Fellows. For the IAU, he is part of the Leadership Committee for its Commission F1 (Meteors, Meteorites, and Interplanetary Dust). In this capacity, he helps set the definitions and scientific terminology for the field and helps organize major international conferences. His responsibilities are global and strategic, aimed at protecting our planet and space infrastructure from cosmic threats.
From the small towns of Kerala to the historic halls of the Paris Observatory, Dr. Aswin Sekhar’s journey is a testament to the power of innate curiosity and perseverance. As India’s first professional meteor scientist, his groundbreaking research into the dynamics of meteoroid streams has not only earned him a place among the stars—literally, with a minor planet named in his honour—but has also positioned him as a leading voice in global astronomical governance and science outreach.
💡 Dr. Sekhar often explains that for every one orbit a Perseid particle makes, Jupiter completes 10 revolutions and Saturn completes 4. This specific ratio is the "secret sauce" behind some of our brightest meteor displays. Aswin Sekhar – doing things differently
His advice to young astrophiles is typical of his no-nonsense yet hopeful style: "Do not wait for a perfect dark sky. Go out now with binoculars. Learn orbital mechanics on a napkin. And never stop asking who owns the stars."
of the American Meteor Society and the International Meteor Organization. Promoting Science in Developing Countries
While Einstein's general relativity is frequently applied to massive bodies like black holes or planets, Dr. Sekhar pioneered models evaluating on minuscule meteoroid orbits. This degree of precision ensures hyper-accurate long-term forecasting for meteor showers and potential deep-space collisions. 3. Tracking Comet Halley and the Orionids
If you follow modern space science, you may have seen his name attached to studies about the Tunguska event, the search for phosphine on Venus, or passionate op-eds about satellite "megaconstellations." But who is Aswin Sekhar, and why is his voice becoming increasingly vital in 21st-century astronomy? Sekhar played a crucial role in developing the
This article dives deep into the career, philosophy, and impact of Aswin Sekhar, exploring how a background in astrophysics transformed into a mission for sustainable governance and technological equity.
His scientific contributions primarily revolve around and planetary defense . In an era where space debris and near-Earth objects (NEOs) pose existential threats, Sekhar’s research provided critical data on the flux of meteoroids and their impact on Earth’s atmosphere. For a time, his trajectory seemed fixed: a life of telescopes, data sets, and peer-reviewed journals. However, the call to apply scientific rigor to human development proved too strong to ignore.
His academic journey began in India, where he earned an MSc in Physics from Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), followed by an MPhil in Physics from Christ University in Bangalore. Driven to push the boundaries of his niche field, he then moved to the United Kingdom to pursue a PhD in Physics from Queen’s University Belfast, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the UK and Ireland.
His academic career has seen him affiliated with some of the world's leading astronomical institutions. Currently, he works as an astronomer at the Paris Observatory in France, a historic institution under the French Ministry of Science and Education. In his work, the poetic wonder of the night sky meets practical, high-stakes science. His primary job is to forecast the paths of outer space particles and assess the risks they pose to our ever-growing fleet of satellites, spacecraft, and astronauts. He is, in many ways, a celestial traffic controller, working to ensure the safety of humanity's assets in space from the threat of dense meteoroid streams.