India has become part of the largest radio telescope project in the world.
Scientists in India will now be part of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO).
SKAO will function as the world’s largest radio telescope.
SKAO is not a single telescope. It is an array of thousands of antennas.
The antennas will be installed in remote radio-quiet locations in South Africa and Australia.
India has taken part in the development of SKAO since its inception in the 1990s.
India has taken part through the Pune-based National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) and some other institutions.
SKAO was established as an intergovernmental organisation in 2021.
Countries are required to sign and ratify the SKAO convention to become members.
The Government’s approval for joining the project is the first step towards the ratification.
In its 2023 year-end note, the Department of Atomic Energy announced the approval with a financial sanction of Rs 1,250 crore.
India was permitted to construct the third node of the US-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the Hingoli district of Maharashtra.
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for the first discovery of gravitational waves by the two LIGO detectors still in operation in the United States.
The SKA will look for gravitational waves. It will be able to see considerably further into the cosmos, over 3,000 trillion kilometres, to examine galaxies and stars in more detail.
India’s main contribution to the SKA is in the development, and operation of the software that will make the telescope work.
NCRA operates operates India’s largest network of radio telescopes called the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) near Pune.
GMRT is the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope, which is operating within the 110-1,460 MegaHertz frequency range.
