Dr. U R Rao was born on 10th March 1932, at Adamaru in the state of Karnataka. After completing his undergraduate at Anantpur, Rao moved to Banaras HIndu University for his Masters and then to Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad to complete his PhD under  the guidance of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai.

A galaxy supercluster is the largest known structure in the Universe, made of dozens of galaxy clusters, themselves containing thousands of galaxies. The Saraswati Supercluster, discovered this year by a team of Indian scientists, is the largest known galaxy cluster today. It extends over 650 million light years across and weighs more than 20 billion suns would. We caught up with Prof. Joydeep Bagchi, who led the team that discovered Saraswati Supercluster, for a chat about the importance and implications of the discovery.