Orbiting 600 km above the earth's surface, the Rs 200 crore Astrosat would facilitate study of astrophysical objects ranging from nearby solar system objects to distant stars.
KOLKATA: India's multi-wavelength astronomical observatory "Astrosat" will be launched in 2008 with the challenges in its design and control system being overcome, eminent astrophysicist and former ISRO chairman Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan has said.
"It will be launched next year," Kasturirangan said, adding that the biggest challenge of creating a control system in space for the Astrosat had been overcome with the use of high-speed wheels to facilitate tilting of the telescopes at the desired angles.
Orbiting 600 km above the earth's surface, the Rs 200 crore Astrosat would facilitate study of astrophysical objects ranging from nearby solar system objects to distant stars and objects at cosmological distances, he said.
Since most astronomical objects in the known universe emit radiations from long wavelength radio emission to extremely short wavelength gamma rays, understanding of the physical processes causing frequency dependent, time-variable phenomena would require near simultaneous multi-frequency observations.
Astrosat would also enable timing studies of variables from pulsations of the 'hot white dwarfs' to active galactic nuclei with time scales ranging from millisecond to few hours to days, Kasturirangan said while delivering the second Raja Ramanna Memorial Lecture at the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre here on Saturday.
Astrosat's system configuration comprises Large Area Xanon-filled Gas Proportional Counters, Cadmium-Zinc Telluride (CZT) detector-based hard x-ray telescope, an imaging telescope based on conical foil mirrors for x-ray reflection, a scanning x-ray sky monitor and an optical telescope combining ultra-violet and visible processes.
Kasturirangan said Astrosat's scientific objectives were multi-wavelength studies of cosmic sources, monitoring of the x-ray sky for new transients and all-sky survey in the x-ray and ultra-violet bands.
Its other objectives included broadband spectroscopic studies of galaxy clusters and stellar coronae, studies of periodic and non-periodic variability of x-ray sources, monitoring intensity of known sources and detecting outbursts and luminosity variations, he said.
With a mass of 1,650 tonne, Astrosat will gather 120 gigabytes of data through four orbits, he said, adding that Astrosat would have a minimum lifespan of five years.
Led by ISRO, the other collaborators of the Astrosat project include the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, Indian Institute of Astrophysicist, Bangalore, Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, Nuclear Research Laboratory, Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai and the S N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata.
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