7/17/2019 Astrosat

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Astrosat, India’s HubRAGHU KRISHNAN

Bengaluru, 19 September

Astrosat, India’s first space obser-vatory, is set to be launched onSeptember 28. Dedicated toastronomy, the satellite is a minia-ture version of the Hubble, the US-European joint space observatorythat has discovered new galaxiesand improved understanding of 

the universe.India’s observatory will be the

fourth in space, after the Hubble,Russia’s Spektr R and Suzaku of Japan.

Astrosat, initially planned for2005, has been delayed by a

decade, as the scientific commu-nity struggled to build with preci-sion the instruments needed forsuch operations.

The instruments, spreadingacross ultraviolet and X-ray wave-lengths, will study black holes,neutron stars, quasars, whitedwarfs and pulsars.

“Astrosat is special due to thechoice of instruments to study in

multi-wave lengths — UV rays, vis-ible and X-rays — which even theHubble doesn’t have,” A S KiranKumar, chairman of the IndianSpace Research Organisation(Isro), had said in a recent inter-view. “The instruments allow

simultaneousmic sources, aer observatorlimitations.”

The diamecal mirror is a

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