I’m Prasanna Deshapriya and I study small bodies of the solar system. I’ve been working with OSIRIS imaging instrument of the Rosetta space mission for about 3.5 years, analysing spectrophotometric data of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during my Master 2 internship and my PhD thesis. My PhD in astronomy and astrophysics was completed at LESIA-Observatoire de Paris with the supervision of Antonella Barucci and it was awarded by the Université Paris Diderot/ Université Sorbonne Paris Cité. My research interests include ices in the solar system, photometry of small bodies and analysis of bright features on the comet 67P/C-G. I received my Master degree in Space Applications from the University of Science & Technology of Hanoi (USTH), Vietnam and Observatoire de Paris, France in 2015. I also hold a Bachelor degree in Physical Science from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Currently, I’m getting involved with the Hayabusa2 space mission to the asteroid Ryugu and OSIRIS-REx space mission to the asteroid Bennu, both of which are on-going. Both of these missions have important scientific implications, as they will be bringing samples from these primitive bodies back to the Earth for detailed analyses. Learning more about these small bodies is crucial to understand the formation of the solar system, as well as to develop means to mitigate any asteroid impact threats to the Earth.
I’m also an amateur astronomer, gazing at the skies to better discover the universe. I grew up in Sri Lanka, where I inculcated a passion for astronomy, looking at the starry canopy overhead and later got involved with a lot of outreach work, especially during the International Year of Astronomy 2009. My hobbies include travelling, languages and Chess. It would not be exaggerating to say that I could juggle with six languages at different levels of fluencies. Apart from that I could equally enjoy a leisurely stroll and a summery sprint. AstroNomad is my blog where I try to share my accounts with regards to areas of astronomy and space plus my traveling logs combined with them.
Ad Astra Per Aspera!!
Some notable projects
I voluntarily worked as the National Point of Contact (NPoC) of Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) for Sri Lanka from 2011-2013. I’ve been working in the development of astronomy in Sri Lanka through various outreach-activity based projects, during last 5 years with the aim sharing with everybody the treasures of starry skies. In 2008 I started blogging at « IYA2009 – Astronomy Sri Lanka – Beyond IYA » at http://iya2009sl.blogspot.com/ and this blogging journey has today, after about half a decade, brought me to AstroNomad. Actually it was the blog I created to share about IYA2009 related activities in Sri Lanka, but later it boosted my passion to write more. Especially during the year of 2009, my involvement with astronomy outreach grew more for it was the international year of astronomy, dearly known as IYA2009 worldwide. 2009 was a major highlight for me, as I got to know many scientists and like-minded people who ended up as good friends at the end of numerous collaborative projects conducted internationally. Afterwards I got involved with the Beyond IYA projects and have been contributing towards the upheaval of astronomy education and outreach both locally and internationally.
During the term of 2012-2013 I was the president of Mathematical & Astronomical Society (MAS) of University of Colombo and spearheaded an expedition to Trincomalee for the Venus Transit took plane on 06th June 2012 with the members of the society. Further we managed to organize « Star Quest 2012 », the annual school-based astronomy quiz competition successfully held on 23rd June 2012. Additionally I was invited to present at 5th International Meeting on Astronomy and Astronautics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in April 2012, representing the Mathematical & Astronomical Society (MAS) of University of Colombo, which turned out to be the debut of my international appearance in a conference and I delivered a presentation on « Outreach of Astronomy in Sri Lanka ».
In January 2013 I took part in « 1st SPACE Retreat » , an unconference-styled, a fortnight-long conference held in Tenerife in Canary Islands, where I delivered my presentation on « Space Tourism ». It is also in 2013 that I had the pleasure of serving as the General Secretary of Sri Lanka Astronomical Association. Then in September 2013 I attended the 12th Space Generation Congress and 64th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Beijing, China. Then in October 2013 I moved to Hanoi, Vietnam where I started my Master degree at the USTH, which led to an internship at LESIA-Observatoire de Paris in the second year of the Master. While finishing the Master degree, I took part in the annual competition, which was organised by the Doctoral School of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Paris area (Ecole Doctorale d’Astronomie et Astrophysique d’Ile-de-France – ED 127), to obtain a PhD thesis with funding. Upon successful results, in October 2015, I started working on the topic of the spectrophotometry of the nucleus of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from OSIRIS/Rosetta data and successfully defended it in September 2018. Currently I work at the Paris Observatory as an ATER (Attaché Temporaire d’Enseignement et de Recherche).