Latest news with #DevasthalOpticalTelescope
Hindustan Times
14-05-2025
- Science
- Hindustan Times
ARIES, DRDO lab sign MoU to boost India's space situational awareness
Dehradun: In a significant step toward enhancing India's capabilities in space surveillance, the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital, and the Instruments Research & Development Establishment (IRDE), Dehradun, which is a laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at IRDE's facility in Dehradun. The collaboration marks a significant step in India's efforts to enhance its space monitoring capabilities, aligning scientific research with national security objectives. The MoU was signed by Dr Manish Kumar Naja, director of ARIES, and D Ajay Kumar, director of IRDE, in the presence of Dr Brijesh Kumar and Dr TS Kumar from ARIES, and Ruma Dhaka, Dr Sudhir Khare, Dr Manavendra Singh, Abhijit Chakraborty, and Bharat Ram Meena from IRDE on Tuesday. The collaboration unites ARIES, a leading astronomy and astrophysics research institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), with IRDE, a DRDO laboratory specialising in electro-optical surveillance systems. The MoU signed on Tuesday aims to leverage ARIES' advanced observational facilities, including the 3.6m Devasthal Optical Telescope and ST Radar system, alongside IRDE's expertise in developing surveillance technologies for ground, naval, airborne, and space platforms. The partnership will focus on strengthening ground-based Space Situational Awareness (SSA) through several key initiatives, like utilising ARIES' observational facilities for monitoring and acquiring data on space objects. This strategic alliance between two premier Uttarakhand-based institutions is expected to foster innovation in space surveillance and ground-based astronomy. ARIES is a premier research institute in the field of astronomy, astrophysics and atmospheric sciences and hosts state-of-the-art national observing facilities including the 3.6 m Devasthal Optical Telescope and ST Radar system. IRDE is a leading institution engaged in the design and development of Electro-Optical surveillance systems for the Armed Forces across ground, naval, airborne, and space platforms.
Gulf News
17-04-2025
- Science
- Gulf News
Indian telescopes shed light on elusive ‘middleweight' black holes
New Delhi: Astrophysicists from Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), have successfully detected and measured the properties of an intermedia black hole (IMBH). IMBH which has remained elusive is found in a faint galaxy called NGC 4395 about 4.3 million light-years away from Earth. Using the 3.6m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) -- India's largest optical telescope --, the team found that gas clouds orbit the black hole at a distance of 125 light-minutes (around 2.25 billion kilometre) with a velocity dispersion of 545 km per second. 'The discovery refines our understanding about how black holes, especially those that weigh between 100 and 100,000 Suns, grow and interact with their surroundings,' the scientists said. For decades, astronomers have searched for a missing link in the cosmic black hole family: the elusive Intermediate-Mass Black Holes (IMBHs). IMBHs are thought to be the seeds that grow into supermassive black holes. However, their faint nature and location in small galaxies make them extremely difficult to observe. Unlike their larger counterparts, they don't generate bright emissions unless they're actively pulling in matter, making advanced observational techniques essential. The team of astrophysicists, led by Shivangi Pandey studied NGC 4395 -- a low-luminosity active galaxy hosting one of the faintest actively feeding black holes ever observed. They used the 3.6m DOT, and its indigenously developed spectrograph and camera ADFOSC, along with the smaller 1.3m Devasthal Fast Optical Telescope (DFOT) located at the Devasthal Observatory of ARIES in Uttarakhand's Nainital. The team monitored the object continuously for two nights using both telescopes and applied a special technique called spectrophotometric reverberation mapping. This technique measures the delay between light emitted by the black hole's accretion disk and the surrounding gas clouds (broad-line region). This delay, or time lag, revealed the region's size and helped calculate the black hole's mass, said the team. The results, published in the Astrophysical Journal, showed that 'the IMBH weighs about 22,000 times the Sun's mass, making it one of the most precisely measured intermediate-mass black holes. The black hole consumes matter at just 6 per cent of its maximum theoretical rate'. 'The hunt for more IMBHs is far from over. Larger telescopes and advanced instruments will be key to uncovering these cosmic middleweights,' said Dr Suvendu Rakshit, a scientist at ARIES.
