Mysuru, 13 November

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inaugurated India’s first LED Dome planetarium in India on the Mysuru University campus in the foothills of Chamundi Hills, and said that “science and spirituality go hand in hand”.

Built by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), COSMOS-Mysuru has been envisaged as an astronomy education, research and training centre. The facility aims to promote scientific curiosity and make astronomy more accessible to students and the public.

The state-of-the-art facility features a 15-metre tilted dome comprising around 6,150 panels with 4.2 crore individual LEDs. Unlike conventional planetariums that use projectors to display images on a passive dome, its LED panels can be controlled in real time, offering an immersive visual experience and new possibilities for astronomy education.

The Sky Theatre will showcase professionally produced astronomy programmes, along with an in-house film exploring the connection between the history of Mysuru and astronomy. The shows will be available in Kannada, English and Hindi.

Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman were present on the occasion. 

“Spirituality and science go hand in hand in India,” Modi said at the event. 

Despite lacking modern equipment, our ancestors studied the cosmos and the movement of planets very closely. Our ancient astronomers accomplished complex mathematical calculations to study the cosmos".

Modi also lauded the efforts of the Mysuru Royal family in promoting science in the country by setting up Mysuru University and donating land for the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

Speaking about the government’s policy, he said India opened up the space sector for private players, allowing them to launch their rockets.

Noting that Indian space missions are meant for the welfare of humanity, he said, "Our satellites help fishermen, track trains in real time, and use satellite data for crop insurance".

Speaking at the event, Shivakumar said the country's space journey was incomplete without Karnataka, from Aryabhata, India’s first satellite, to Chandrayaan, Aditya-L1 and the upcoming Gaganyaan mission.

"India’s rockets may rise from launch pads, but the ideas, engineering and scientific talent behind many of these missions have deep roots in Karnataka," he said.

He asked the Department of Science and Technology to explore setting up a CoSMOS-like facility in North Karnataka.