India Operationalises New Telescope In Ladakh To Study Black Hole Mergers

India’s new telescope, which will be used to study events like supernovae, neutron stars or black hole mergers, and near-earth asteroids, has been operationalised at Hanle in Ladakh, Deccan Herald has reported.

The telescope, according to the daily’s report, will provide clues on how heavy elements are cooked inside a star and what is the final fate of such stars.

The observatory, where the telescope has been installed, is located close to the same site where the existing Chandra telescope was set up in 2000.

The telescope is part of a worldwide network of 18 observatories known as Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen. It has been operationalised by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, based in Bengaluru.

The “telescope automatically will open up the dome, do the calibration, carry out the observation, shut the dome in the morning and do the preliminary data analysis. Scientist’s job is to interpret the data,” said Varun Bhalerao from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, who is also a principal investigator in the project, talking about the functioning of the new telescope.

Not far from the site of the new new set up is the Major Atmospheric Cerenkov Experiment Telescope, the world's largest telescope at the highest altitude being built by Electronics Corporation of India.