Bharat’s AstroSat space telescope has achieved a significant milestone by
detecting more than 600 Gamma-Ray Burst-GRB, each marking the death of a
massive star or merging of neutron stars.
“The detection of the 600th GRB is a great demonstration of the continued
undiminished performance of Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI) eight years
after launch, and well after its design lifetime,” said CZTI principal
investigator Dipankar Bhattacharya.
Dubbed as mini big-bangs, GRBs are the most energetic explosions in the
universe, emitting more energy in seconds than the sun will emit in its entire
lifetime, said Gaurav Waratkar, a PhD student at IIT Bombay, who leads the
study of GRBs with AstroSat.
GRBs last from a fraction of a second to several minutes, and are
accompanied by the birth of a black hole.
Launched in 2015 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO),
AstroSat had a design life of five years, but continues to be in good health,
making observations for astronomers.
The satellite is India’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space
observatory, equipped with a suite of payloads for simultaneously observing
celestial objects across different wavelengths, from ultraviolet to X-rays.
“We are proud of what AstroSat has accomplished. To build upon this
success, multiple institutes have come together and proposed to build Daksha, a
next-generation GRB space telescope that will be far better than any such
satellite worldwide. Daksha will be sensitive enough to detect in just over a
year what CZTI did in eight,” stated IIT-Bombay associate professor Varun
Bhalerao.
The 600th GRB detection by AstroSat’s CZTI detector was made on November
22, which was notified to astronomers across the world who could use it in
their research on such a phenomenon and provide astronomers with invaluable
data to explore the extreme conditions associated with these high-energy
events.
“It is amazing to look at the data and have the opportunity to be the
first one to view these explosions that happened billions of years ago,” said Waratkar.
He said since the 600th GRB, the CZTI has detected three more such
events, the latest on Monday.
The detection of these GRBs, science results from the various instruments
on AstroSat have been published in over 400 peer-reviewed research articles.
PTI
