He was 75 and is survived by his wife and two sons.
Bhattacharya won the coveted Rabindra Puraskar for his book 'Prachin Bharate Jyotirbigyan (Astronomy in ancient India)' in the year 1976.
He also authored more than 50 science books, including the immensely popular 'Amra keno amader motun dekhte (Why do we look the way we do)', 'Ki khabo na khabo (What to eat and what not)' and 'Bangalir bigyan bhabna o sadhana'.
Bhattacharya won the 1976-77 NCERT prize for children's science writing and 1994 Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Indira Gandhi Prize for popularisation of science.