Indigenously Built World's Highest Gamma-ray Telescope Set To Go Live In 2020 In Ladakh

In a revolutionary move, India is all set to welcome one of the world's largest and the highest gamma-ray telescope, MACE is going to come up in Ladakh this year.

The fully indigenous telescope is developed by the researchers at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). The project is a collaborative venture of TIFR, BARC, Indian Institute of Astrophysics have also collaborated along with the Electronics Corporation of India Limited.

According to BARC, MACE will be set up at the Indian Astronomical Observatory in Hanle, Ladakh approximately 4300 meters above sea level. The telescope has a huge 21-meter-diameter dish which includes 356 mirror panels and over 1,000 cameras MACE can detect flashes of the Cherenkov radiation that lasts just a few nanoseconds.

"The installation of the telescope is complete, and trial runs are being carried out. It will go live later this year. The first science results from this project will come in a year or two," The Print quoted Nilay Bhatt, a researcher at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), as saying.

The high altitude of the chosen location has a distinct advantage to observe the Cherenkov radiation. The Cherenkov radiation due to gamma-rays usually occurs at 10 km altitude above sea level, when cosmic gamma rays strike the Earth's upper atmosphere.

What is MACE?

Major Atmospheric Cerenkov Experiment Telescope or MACE Hanle is the world's largest telescope at the highest altitude. It will be operated with a remote and will run on Solar Power.

The telescope gets its name from the Russian scientist Cerenkov who had predicted that charged particles moving at high speeds in a medium, emit light, a phenomenon called Cherenkov radiation.

High energy gamma rays emitted from black holes end up getting absorbed in the atmosphere before reaching the land. On interacting with the atmosphere, the photons give rise to electron-positron pairs and there is a cascade of particles.

When these particles move in the atmosphere at very high speed, they give rise to Cherenkov radiation. The resulting blue and ultraviolet Cherenkov light are analysed to infer the number of gamma rays hitting the atmosphere. It produces a characteristic blue glow in underwater nuclear reactors.

In 1958, Cherenkov had shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm for this discovery.

The main aim of this gamma-ray telescope is to explore the exciting energy range of gamma-ray energy region in between satellite and the traditional Atmospheric Cherenkov experiments. The enormous energy of Gamma rays allows them to pass through the mirrors used in ordinary optical telescopes. The trick is to use specialised detectors.

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