SARAS Telescope

Why in news?

• Raman Research Institute in Bengaluru have determined properties of radio luminous galaxies formed just 200 million years after the Big Bang, a period known as the Cosmic Dawn. This was done using SARAS Telescope.

About SARAS Telescope:

• Shaped Antenna measurement of the background Radio Spectrum 3 (SARAS) Telescope is indigenously designed and built at Raman Research Institute (RRI).
• It aims to detect extremely faint radio wave signals from the depths of time, from our “Cosmic Dawn” when the first stars and galaxies formed in the early Universe.
• In 2020, the SARAS telescope was deployed in lakes in Northern Karnataka, on Dandiganahalli Lake and Sharavati backwaters.

About Cosmic Dawn:

• For a period of roughly 100 million years in the early universe, starting about 380,000 years after the big bang, the cosmos was completely dark.
• Then, stars and galaxies began to form, emitting light and ionizing the intergalactic hydrogen gas in a process called cosmic dawn.
• Detecting a faint signal from cosmic dawn is extremely difficult.
  • The celestial signal is exceptionally faint – buried in sky radio waves that come to us from the gas in our own Galaxy, the Milky Way, which are a million times brighter.
  • Besides, this cosmic signal is in a radio wavelength band used by numerous terrestrial communications equipment and TV and FM radio stations, which makes detecting the extra-terrestrial signal extremely difficult.
• However, RRI scientists and engineers have designed the SARAS radio telescope to discern signals from Cosmic Dawn.

Major findings of SARAS 3 Telescope:

• The telescope has improved the understanding of the astrophysics of Cosmic Dawn.
• It has shown that less than 3% of the gaseous matter within early galaxies was converted into stars and that the earliest galaxies that were bright in radio emission were also strong in X-rays.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding ‘SARAS 3 radio telescope’?

1. SARAS 3 radio telescope was indigenously built in India

2. It aims to detect extremely faint radio wave signals from our Cosmic Dawn

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer