Bengaluru-born Astronomer to Lead NASA's $20 Million PUFFINS Space Telescope Mission

Ramya Manjunath Anche, an assistant research professor at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory, will lead NASA's $20 million PUFFINS (Polarimetry in the Ultraviolet to Find Features in Interstellar dust) space telescope mission. Scheduled for launch in 2030, PUFFINS is a small satellite telescope designed to investigate the properties of interstellar dust and enhance understanding of the universe by observing how dust interacts with ultraviolet light. The mission was selected as part of NASA's Astrophysics Pioneers program.