GIANT METROWAVE RADIO TELESCOPE - SCI & TECH
News: India's
largest radio telescope plays vital role in detecting universe's vibrations
What's in the News?
● India’s
Giant Metro-wave Radio Telescope (GMRT) was among the world’s six large telescopes that played a vital role in
providing evidence confirming the presence of gravitational waves using pulsar
observations.
Giant Metro-wave
Radio Telescope:
● The
Giant Metro-wave Radio Telescope (GMRT) was among the world’s six large
telescopes used to monitor pulsars,
called ‘nature’s best clocks’.
● GMRT
is a low-frequency radio telescope
that helps investigate various radio astrophysical problems ranging from nearby
solar systems to the edge of the observable universe.
● It
is operated by the National Centre for
Radio Astrophysics (NCRA).
Other Powerful Telescopes of the World:
● Six
of the world’s most powerful and large radio telescopes were deployed to study
25 pulsars over a period of 15 years such as
○ GMRT
○ Westerbork
Synthesis Radio Telescope
○ Effelsberg
Radio Telescope
○ Lovell
Telescope
○ Nançay
Radio Telescope
○ Sardinia
Radio Telescope
Go back to basics:
Pulsars:
● Nicknamed
as cosmic clocks, pulsars are rapidly
spinning neutron stars that send out radio signals at regular intervals
which are seen as bright flashes from the Earth
Detection of Gravitational Waves:
● In
order to detect gravitational wave signals, scientists explore several ultra-stable pulsar clocks randomly distributed
across our Milky Way galaxy and create an ‘imaginary’ galactic-scale
gravitational wave detector.
● There
are several signals traveling through spacetime of the Universe. But, the
presence of gravitational waves influences the arrival of these signals when
detected from Earth.
● It
was noticed in these studies that some signals arrive early while others, with
a slight delay.
● These
nano-hertz signals were heard as humming from the Universe. These were caused
due to the presence of gravitational waves and due to signal irregularities
emerging from pulsars.
Significance:
● It
opened a new, Astro physically-rich window in the gravitational wave spectrum.
● It
helps detect atomic hydrogen from
far-away galaxies.
● To
Understanding the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time.