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06 Jun 2022 Liquid-mirror telescope

Posted at 15:21h in Daily current-affairs by khyati khare 0 Comments

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Recently, the Devasthal Observatory complex owned by Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital in Uttarakhand has set up the International Liquid-Mirror Telescope (ILMT).

It has become the world’s first Liquid-Mirror Telescope (LMT) to be authorized for astronomy and the first of its kind to be operational anywhere in the world.
Asteroids, supernovas, space debris and all other celestial bodies will be observed using ILMT from an altitude of 2,450 meters in the Himalayas. The Hindu Analysis
The first built telescopes either tracked satellites or were deployed for military purposes.
ILMT will be the third telescope facility to be built at Devasthal.
Devasthal is one of the original places in the world to get astronomical observations.
Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) and Devasthal Fast Optical Telescope (DFOT) are the other two telescope facilities at Devasthal. The Hindu Analysis
Full scale scientific operation of ILMT will be started in October 2022.
It will work with India’s largest operational Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT).
The countries involved in the development of ILMT are India, Belgium, Canada, Poland and Uzbekistan.

LMT is a stationary telescope, whereas a conventional telescope works in the direction of ‘object of interest’ in the sky.
An LMT will survey all possible celestial bodies such as stars, galaxies, supernova explosions, asteroids and even space debris. However, a conventional telescope is able to see only a fraction of the sky at a given time.
LMT consists of mirrors along with a reflecting liquid (ILMT contains mercury as the reflecting liquid). On the other hand a conventional telescope uses highly polished glass mirrors. The Hindu Analysis
The ILMT will obtain images of the sky on all nights, whereas conventional telescopes obtain specific objects in the sky only at certain hours.

Large amount of data (10-15 GB/night) will be generated. This will be important to the global scientific community.
It will deploy latest computational tools like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Big Data Analytics for screening, processing and analysis of data. The Hindu Analysis
Selected data can be used as base data for further focused research using the in-house DOT-mounted spectrograph, near-infrared spectrograph.