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Telescope to detect gamma rays commissioned in Mount Abu

The recently commissioned Gamma Rays Astrophysics Coordinated Experiment telescope at Mount Abu will prove a major landmark in India's space research.

Thanks to it, space scientists will now be able to observe even the minutest happenings taking place millions of light years away. The most significant experiment will be to detect rays of cosmic and stellar origin.

The telescope will help understand the nature of rays emitted from such locations as a suprenova (a star that suddenly brightens considerably because of explosions which eject most of its mass), pulsar (a cosmic source of regular and rapid pulses of radiation), etc.

It took four years to develop GRACE. Oval in shape, this telescope consists a central solar array of three-and-a-half metre diametre. This array, in its turn, comprise 32 high-quality circular minors, each of 60 centimeter diametre. At the center of this arrangement is a high resolution image camera with 349 photo-multiplier tubes.

The telescope can record cosmic rays having as small a life as 10 nanoseconds. It can record photons in gamma rays and the smallest movement of cosmic rays. Since its commissioning, the telescope has identified two galaxies having huge black holes at the centre.

The project was commissioned with support from the Atomic Energy Department and the Union government's scientific and astrophysics department. A short-term agreement on scientific data exchange to Russia also helped in mounting the telescope. The skeleton of the telescope was designed in association with Moscow's P N Lebedev Astrophysics Centre. Information will also be shared with the Lebedev centre in Kazhakistan.

Compiled from the Marathi media by Prasanna D Zore

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