Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope

Coordinates: 19°05′47″N 74°02′59″E / 19.096517°N 74.049742°E / 19.096517; 74.049742
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Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope
Alternative namesGMRT Edit this at Wikidata
Location(s)Narayangaon, Pune district, Pune division, Maharashtra, India
Coordinates19°05′47″N 74°02′59″E / 19.096517°N 74.049742°E / 19.096517; 74.049742 Edit this at Wikidata
OrganizationNational Centre for Radio Astrophysics Edit this on Wikidata
Wavelength50, 1,500 MHz (6.00, 0.20 m)
First light1995 Edit this on Wikidata
Telescope styleradio interferometer Edit this on Wikidata
Number of telescopes30 Edit this on Wikidata
Diameter45 m (147 ft 8 in) Edit this at Wikidata
Collecting area47,713 m2 (513,580 sq ft) Edit this at Wikidata
Websitewww.gmrt.ncra.tifr.res.in Edit this at Wikidata
Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope is located in India
Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope
Location of Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope
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The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), located near Narayangaon, Pune in India, is an array of thirty fully steerable parabolic radio telescopes of 45 metre diameter, observing at metre wavelengths. It is the largest and most sensitive radio telescope array in the world at low frequencies.[1] It is operated by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), a part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. It was conceived and built under the direction of Govind Swarup during 1984 to 1996.[2] It is an interferometric array with baselines of up to 25 kilometres (16 mi).[3][4][5] It was recently upgraded with new receivers, after which it is also known as the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT).[6]

Location

The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) Observatory is located about 80 km north of Pune at Khodad. A nearby town is Narayangaon which is around 9 km from the telescope site. The office of National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) is located in the Savitribai Phule Pune University campus.

Science and observations

One of the aims for the telescope during its development was to search for the highly redshifted 21-cm line radiation from primordial neutral hydrogen clouds in order to determine the epoch of galaxy formation in the universe.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]

Astronomers from all over the world regularly use this telescope to observe many different astronomical objects such as the

epoch of reionisation etc. .[3][6]

GMRT has produced an all sky survey named TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS). Nearly 90% of the sky has been imaged at the frequency of 150 MHz (wavelength 2m), with an angular resolution of 25 arc second and rms noise of 5 mili Jansky per beam. Source Catalogue and FITS image files for the scientific community are freely available.[31] General public and citizen scientists can see 150 MHz image of any, supernova remnant, spiral galaxy or radio galaxy with its name or position at the RAD@home RGB-maker web-tool. Power and versatility of the GMRT has led to a renaissance in the field of low frequency radio astronomy.[32]

From this, TGSS survey, data, in August 2018, the most distant known radio galaxy : TGSS J1530+1049, located at a distance of 12 billion light years, was discovered by GMRT.[33][34]

In February 2020, it helped in the observation of evidence of the largest known explosion in the history of the universe, the

Ophiuchus Supercluster explosion.[35]

In January 2023, the telescope picked up a radio signal (21 cm line emission from neutral atomic hydrogen gas) which originated from 8.8 billion light years away. [36]

Activities

Each year on National Science Day the observatory invites the public and pupils from schools and colleges in the surrounding area to visit the site where they can listen to explanations of radio astronomy, receiver technology and astronomy from the engineers and astronomers who work there. Nearby schools/colleges are also invited to put their individual science experiments in exhibition and the best one in each level (primary, secondary school and Jr. college) are awarded.

Visitors are allowed into GMRT only on Fridays in two sessions - Morning (1100 hrs - 1300 hrs) and Evening (1500 hrs to 1700 hrs).

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope". NCRA website.
  2. ^ Prof. Govind Swarup: The Father of Radio Astronomy in India
  3. ^ a b Ananthakrishnan, S. (1995). "The giant meterwave radio telescope" (PDF). Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy. 16: 433. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  4. .
  5. ^ Swarup, G., Ananthkrishnan, S., Kapahi, V.K., Rao, A.P., Subrahamanya, C.R., and Kulkarni, V.K. (1991) "The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope", Current Science, vol. 60, pages 90-105.
  6. ^
    ISSN 0011-3891
    .
  7. . Retrieved 27 June 2015.
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  33. . Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  34. ^ "Telescope In Pune Discovers Most Distant Radio Galaxy Ever Found". NDTV.com. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
  35. ^ "Astronomers detect biggest explosion in the history of the Universe". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  36. ^ "Indian astronomer captures radio signal that originated 8 billion years ago".

External links