ISRO announces opportunities to analyse Astrosat

Subject : Science and technology

Section :Space

Concept :

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has recently made an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) to allow scientists and researchers to analyze data from the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission, AstroSat.

About AstroSat:

It is India’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory.
It is the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission aimed at studying celestial sources in X-ray, optical, and UV spectral bands simultaneously.
AstroSat, with a lift-off mass of 1515 kg, was launched by the Indian launch vehicle PSLV from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, on September 28, 2015, into a 650 km orbit inclined at an angle of 6 degrees to the equator.
The spacecraft control center at Mission Operations Complex (MOX) of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bengaluru, manages the satellite during its entire mission life.
It is a multi-institute collaborative project, involving IUCAA, ISRO, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Mumbai), Indian Institute of Astrophysics (Bengaluru), and Physical Research Laboratory (Ahmedabad), among others.

Scientific Objectives:

To understand high energy processes in binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes.
Estimate magnetic fields of neutron stars.
Study star birth regions and high energy processes in star systems lying beyond our galaxy.
Detect new briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky.
Perform a limited deep-field survey of the Universe in the Ultraviolet region.