AstroSat
#GS 03 Science and Technology
For Prelims
AstroSat
- AstroSat is the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission which is aimed at studying celestial sources in X-ray, optical and UV spectral bands simultaneously.
- ISRO has made an announcement of opportunity (AO) to allow scientists and researchers to analyse data from the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission, AstroSat.
- Astrosat satellite was launched from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh on September 28, 2015, using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C-30.
- AstroSat was built as a collaboration between IUCAA, ISRO, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Mumbai), Indian Institute of Astrophysics (Bengaluru), and Physical Research Laboratory (Ahmedabad), among others.
Features of AstroSat
- One of the unique features of AstroSat mission is that its ability to do simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of various astronomical objects with a single satellite.
- The satellite can cover the energy bands of Ultraviolet (Near and Far), limited optical and X-ray regime (0.3 keV to 100keV).
- The minimum useful life of the AstroSat satellite is expected to be 5 years.
Payload of AstroSat
Astrosat contains five main scientific payloads.
They are as follows:
- One Soft X-ray Telescope or SXT
- Three Large Area Xenon Proportional Counters or LAXPCs
- One Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride Imager or CZTI
- Two UltraViolet Imaging Telescopes or UVITs – while one is for the visible and near-UV channels, the other is for far-UV
- Three Scanning Sky Monitors or SSMs