Omnarayani Nayak

My nickname is Isha. I am a NASA Postdoctoral Program prize fellow at Goddard Space Flight Center. I discovered super star cluster H72.97-69.39, located in the N79 region of the Large Magellanic Cloud, our neighboring galaxy. Super star clusters are rare in the local Universe, however they were the predominant method of star formation billions of years ago. Super star cluster H72.97-69.39 is less than 100,000 years old making it the youngest one of its kind in the local neighborhood and an excellent laboratory to study how some of the first stars in the Universe might have formed.

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My work has been featured as ESA/Webb picture of the month five time. Super star cluster H72.97-69.39 was January 2024 picture of the month: A Massive Cluster is Born

I presented my discovery of super star cluster H72.97-69.39 at the press event at the 245th American Astronomical Society Meeting

Super star cluster H72.97-69.39, which I discovered, will be featured on The Sky at Night (one of BBC’s longest running television program) during Spring 2025

About

I am an observational astronomer studying massive star formation and super star cluster formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud and local AGNs

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Research

My research focuses on multi-wavelength observations (radio, visible, infrared, X-ray) on early-stage star formation in nearby galaxies, a proxy for star formation in the high-z Universe.

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