India has built the country’s first liquid mirror telescope, which will detect transitory and variable objects like supernovae, gravitational lenses, space debris, and asteroids. The largest telescope in Asia has been installed in Devasthal, a hill in Uttarakhand.
The observatory is located at the Devasthal Observatory site of the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, at a height of 2450 metres (ARIES). Prof. Dipankar Banerjee, Director of ARIES, remarked, “ILMT is the first liquid-mirror telescope developed solely for astronomical studies placed at the Devasthal Observatory of ARIES.”
The telescope will aid in the survey of the sky, allowing observers to see numerous galaxies and other celestial sources just by staring at the strip of sky passing overhead. Scientists from India, Belgium, and Canada collaborated on the observatory, which uses a 4-meter-diameter rotating mirror comprised of a thin sheet of liquid mercury to gather and focus light.
Scientists curled the surface of a pool of mercury, a reflecting liquid, into a parabolic form, which is great for focussing light. The mercury is shielded from the wind by a thin mylar layer. The reflected light is processed by a multi-lens optical corrector, which creates sharp images across a wide field of vision.
Meanwhile, the photos are captured by a large-format electronic camera situated at the focus.
“The rotation of the globe causes the images to drift across the sensor, but this motion is adjusted electrically by the camera,” explained Prof. Paul Hickson (University of British Columbia, Canada), an expert on liquid mirror technology. This method of operation improves the telescope’s observing efficiency and makes it more sensitive to faint and hazy objects.”
The ILMT and the Devasthal Optical Telescope, both four-meter class telescopes, are now located at Devasthal Observatory (DOT). Both telescopes have the greatest aperture accessible in the country. Prof. Dipankar Banerjee is excited by the use of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) algorithms to identify the things seen with the ILMT.
“The amount of data generated by the ILMT study will be outstanding. Several young researchers will be working on various science programs using the ILMT data in the future.” ILMT’s Project Investigator, Dr. Kuntal Misra, stated, Experts also predicted that once regular science operations start later this year, the ILMT will generate roughly 10 GB of data per night, which will be promptly processed to discover variable and transient stellar sources.
Featured Image: PIB
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