India’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory turns seven, a look back at its unprecedented achievements!
Credit for discovery of UV photons far from the world of astrosate stars! Achievements such as X-ray polarization from the off-pulse region of the Crab pulsar, extended emission from the Butterfly Nebula. A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle was launched into space from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota in an orbit of 650 km. Astrosat launched by the Indian Space Research Organization was originally intended to operate for 5 years and was designed for 7 years. Hope he has a long successful career in the service of science!
Its onboard instruments/payloads i.e. Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope, Large Area X-ray Proportional Counters, Soft X-ray Telescope, Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager, Scanning Sky Monitor and Charged Particle Monitor together weigh 1513 kg. Makes Bhari Astrosat a unique observatory for astronomy! The scientific satellite took the help of many scientists and engineers to get there, but it is paying back handsomely through the language of science results, including many important discoveries. The specialty of the satellite is that it provides simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of various astronomical objects at great distances.
In the nearest star proxy, Centauri, which is only 4 light-years away, Astrosat’s eye has crossed a huge expanse to a galaxy 9.3 billion years away!
All thanks to the 5-member tag team at Astrosat. Payloads receive visible ultraviolet and X-rays from distant space sources. An ultraviolet imaging telescope consists of two separate telescopes that can observe the visible, near ultraviolet, and far ultraviolet simultaneously. The payload has been developed in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru and Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune and the Canadian Space Agency. Pune’s Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics has an Astrosat Science Support Cell, guiding students and scientists in designing their research and writing time-consuming proposals to use the observatory. Currently, Astrosat’s user community exceeds 3000, including 1000 international users led by 54 countries including the United States, Italy, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom. A soft X-ray telescope is an X-ray focusing telescope operating in the energy range of 0.3 – 8.0 keV. The payload has been developed by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.
Large Area X-ray Proportional Counters Three large area proportional counters perform timing and broadband spectroscopy at the 3.80 keV X-ray energy band for the study of variable astrophysical sources. Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager A solid state detector with a collection area of hard X-ray imaging equipment in the energy range 10 – 100 keV. It was developed by Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum and Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics Astrosat Science, Pune.
A scanning sky monitor helps scan a portion of the sky away from the Sun in search of transient behavior in X-ray sources. A scanning sky monitor takes only a few hours to complete a large sweep of the sky. It was developed by ISRO Satellite Centre, Bengaluru and IUCA, Pune. Apart from these 5 payloads there is also a charged particle monitor developed by TIFR, Mumbai. TIFR clearly played a key role in the Astrosat project.
These payloads give Astrosat an edge. Combined with ground-based telescopes, scientists get a better view and, after analysis, a better understanding of our incredibly vast and complex universe.
Making frontier science cases these days requires ground- and space-based observations. Gone are the old days of seeing only one object at one wavelength. are released! Getting data is one part, analysis is another! Astrosat operates as a proposal-based general purpose observatory. About half of Astrosat users are from India, involving the participation of 126 Indian universities. Every Indian state except Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh invites Astrosat users. International users include users from America, Italy and Canada. From Afghanistan to Angola Astrosat users are spread across different regions.
It is worth mentioning that so far Astrosat data has led to a total of 277 (referenced) publications and counting. This number will soon reach 300. Until last year estroceton releases averaged around one per week. This average is increasing, surprisingly. It now has five publications per month. On top of all that there are 20 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) theses resulting from Astrosat data. 18 of them are in India. The next cycle of Astrosat observations called the ‘twelfth AO cycle’ will begin in October. and will end in September next year’.
Astrosat is in high demand in the current cycle. The request for Astrosat data doubles in terms of time available for observations!
The space agency is keen to integrate and plan multi-agency missions in the future. At 7 years old Astrosat has already exceeded its planned lifetime of 5 plus 2 years. Hope it will serve science for a long time. Pointing to Astrosat’s many achievements.
In the future it will have the potential to make a difference alongside other space observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope.
Astronomy will be the subject of the 21st century and Astrosat is an extraordinary mission!