Current Affair 1:

News:

A new online tool to create a comprehensive star catalogue for the Adaptive Optics (AO) system of the upcoming Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), can enable this ground-based telescope-- one of the largest to be operational in the next decade, generate sharper astronomical images.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) in Bengaluru and their collaborators have developed an automated code that can be used as an online tool to create a catalogue of Near Infrared (NIR) stars. The automated code can compute the expected near-infrared magnitudes of stellar sources identified in various optical sky surveys using their optical magnitude

The Thirty Meter Telescope, the Giant Magellan Telescope, and the European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope represent the future of ground-based astronomy. India is a key partner in the TMT project, with India TMT Center at Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) leading the national collaboration.

TMT Project:

The Thirty Meter Telescope, as it is known, would be the largest ever contemplated in the Northern Hemisphere.

After years of hearings and litigation, the Supreme Court of Hawaii on Tuesday approved a building permit for a giant telescope on the ancient, contested site of the volcano Mauna Kea.

What TMT will do?

The TMT project is an international partnership between CalTech, Universities of California, Canada, Japan, China, and India.

India is a founder-member partner in the project, and the Union Cabinet approved its participation in 2014. India's contributions to the project include hardware such as segment support assemblies, actuators, edge sensors, and segment polishing.

The Departments of Science and Technology and Atomic Energy will jointly fund India TMT.

It is expected to be operational by 2027.

 

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