An upgrade to GMRT by 2018

#space #telescope #India #GMRT #radioFrequencies #SquareKilometerArray #astronomy

The Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT) will soon be upgraded, as the observatory has already entered the last phase of its up-gradation. The upgrade will make this the world’s largest astronomy telescope operating at low radio frequencies, until Square Kilometer Array (SKA) comes into existence by 2023.

Currently 75-80 percent of the upgrades have been completed.

GMRT, an array of 30 antennas spread across a 30-km diamter region, is used by astronomers from all over the world.

Currently, GMRT allows astronomer to use 150 MHz, 234 MHz, 325 MHz, 610 MHz and 1000 MHz to 1400 MHz, with a maximum bandwidth of 32 MHz. However, after the upgrade is complete, the astronomers will be able to use any frequency between 120 MHz to 1460 MHz, and it will have a maximum bandwidth of 400 MHz.

This improved facility will help to get 100 times more accurate and stable readings.

Read the full article here

This is amazing. One of the best telescopes such as GMRT, located in India, a rare discovery.

Constructing the largest telescope

#construction #telescope #space #astronomy #planets #ELT #Europe #Chile #stars

The European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is being built in Chile, and when completed, it will be the world’s largest optical telescope (about five times larger than current ones). The main mirror of the telescope will measure 39 meters across and will be located on a 3,000-meter-high mountain in the Atacama Desert. It will begin operations in 2024. The construction costs are estimated at $1.12 billion.

The telescope will have the ability to find smaller planets and image larger ones, going as far as characterizing their atmospheres. This is being considered one of the greatest examples of the possibilities of science, and will help in discoveries of planets orbiting other stars, which in turn might be exo-planets.

Atacama Desert was chosen because of its dry atmosphere that provides perfect observing conditions. By the 2020s, the region will have almost 20 percent of the World’s astronomical infrastructure.

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A telescope with better range and clearer observation. A great chance for humanity to know more about space & universe, spot some exoplanets, and some aliens.

Capturing distant images without long lens

#science #space #telescope #lens #SAVI #Imaging

A few scientists have developed a camera that can capture detailed images of distant objects without using a long lens. The system is knows as SAVI (Synthetic Apertures for long-range, subdiffraction-limited Visible Imaging).

Like the technique used to achieve the ‘Matrix’ special effect, the images are taken from slightly different angles, but with one camera that is moved between shots instead of many fired in sequence. The prototype only works with coherent illumination sources such as lasers.

However, if you want an aperture as big as half a foot, you might need at least 30 glass surfaces to remove aberrations and create a focused spot. This will make the lens very big and bulky.

Read the full article here

This is pretty neat. I wonder if this will be used in actual laboratories in the future.

First image of a Black Hole

#space #BlackHole #telescope #image #scientist #MilkyWay #universe

Almost 500 terabytes of data from every telescope was collected in five nights running. The targeted supermassive black hole is hidden in plain sight, lurking in the centre of the Milky Way in a region called the Sagittarius constellation, some 26,000 light years from Earth. However, it might take months to develop the final image.

The experiment involved a number of telescopes all over the globe, like the 30-m IRAM telescope in Spanish Sierra Nevada mountains, South Pole telescope in Antarctica, James Clerk Maxwell telescope in Hawaii and the Atacama Cosmology telescope in the desert of northern Chile. All the data collected from the respective telescopes will be flown on jetliners to the MIT Haystack Observatory in Massachusetts, where it will be processed by supercomputers.

It is believed that if the scientists succeed in getting the results, it may help in understanding the mysteries of our universe and how it came into being.

Read the full article here

Woah. Just a few more months to wait to see an actual Supermassive Black Hole image.

A glimpse into early universe

#Galaxy #space #telescope #stars #planets #BigBang #MACS1423

A galaxy almost 13.1 billion years in the past has been discovered by astronomers, an era just 700million years after the Big Bang. These early galaxies were close to the beginning of the universe, hence they fall within the “Epoch of Reionisation“, a period about a billion years after the Big Bang when the universe became transparent.

It is believed that the universe was a cloud of cold atomic hydrogen after the Big Bang. The first stars and galaxies condensed out of the cloud and started emitting light and ionising radiation. The radiation melted away the atomic hydrogen like a hot sun clearing fog, and the first galaxies spread their light through the universe.

The new galaxy is named MACS1423-z7p64, is at a redshift of 7.6, which means that it is about 13.1 billion years in the past.

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What is with the name of the galaxy? Its amazing, how new discoveries are making us learn more and more about the universe.

Better than Hubble: $8 billion Webb Space Telescope

#space #telescope #webb #hubble #NASA #USA

Let me just say, I am really excited on reading this. Yes, it might have taken quite a lot of time to design and make the Webb telescope, however it’s a big step towards space exploration. And it will start working from April 2019!

James Webb Space Telescope will be collecting the oldest light in the universe, emitted soon after the big bang, when the first stars lit up and the first galaxies began to form. It will study black holes lurking at the center of galaxies. It will scrutinize the light from planets around distant stars and look for atmospheres you’d expect to see on worlds rioting with life.

The telescope is expected to be blasted into space atop a European Ariane rocket in October 2018. The Webb Telescope is considered a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, and includes major contributions from the Canadian and European space agencies.

As a comparison, the Hubble has a 2.4 meter mirror, but the Webb has 18 hexagonal mirrors that make up 6.5 meters. Hence, Webb can collect almost seven times as much starlight!

Read the full article here.