Radio Waves and the Universe : Big Bang to Black Holes

After an introduction to radio astronomy, I will describe some of the great discoveries made by radio astronomers that have revolutionized our understanding of the Universe. Discovery of powerful radio galaxies and quasars indicated the presence of supermassive Black Holes of millions of solar masses at the centers of many galaxies. Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation has provided strong support to the Big Bang origin of the Universe. During the second part of my talk I will describe some of major astronomical results that have been obtained using the Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT) and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India. GMRT has been used by astronomers from 32 countries in the world, with ~ 50% usage by astronomers in India. Finally, I shall describe briefly the Square Kilometer Radio Telescope (SKA) for answering some of the key questions today.