MACE Telescope in Ladakh: India’s Frontier in Gamma-Ray Astronomy

MACE Telescope in Ladakh: India’s Frontier in Gamma-Ray Astronomy

Sub: Sci

Sec: Space sector

Why in News

• The Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment (MACE) telescope was recently inaugurated in Hanle, Ladakh, marking a significant milestone in India’s astronomical research. It is now the highest imaging Cherenkov telescope in the world and aims to provide unprecedented insights into high-energy gamma rays and cosmic phenomena, including dark matter.

About MACE Telescope:

• The MACE telescope is stationed in Hanle, Ladakh, at an altitude of about 3 km above sea level, making it the highest of its kind globally.
• It features a 21-meter-wide dish, the largest in Asia and the second-largest globally.
• This strategic high-altitude location minimizes atmospheric disturbances, enhancing the clarity of data.
• MACE is a collaborative effort involving the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), the Electronics Corporation of India Ltd., and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.
• The telescope’s development emphasizes India’s growing capability in high-energy astrophysics.
• MACE’s light collector consists of 356 mirror panels, each with smaller segments arranged in a honeycomb pattern to maximize reflective area and minimize weight.
• These mirrors focus Cherenkov radiation onto a high-resolution camera with 1,088 photomultiplier tubes, which amplify faint signals for detailed analysis.
• The telescope weighs 180 tonnes and is mounted on a 27-meter-wide curved track.
• A specialized altitude-azimuth mount allows MACE to move both vertically and horizontally, scanning different regions of the sky.
• Its open-air structure, without a dome, allows continuous sky monitoring, with mirrors coated in silicon dioxide for protection against the elements.
• MACE is designed to detect gamma rays with energies above 20 billion eV, focusing on emissions from cosmic sources such as black holes, pulsars, and blazars.
• A significant objective for MACE is to search for dark matter, which constitutes over 85% of the universe’s mass but remains undetected.
• The telescope aims to identify weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a potential dark matter candidate. WIMPs are hypothesized to emit high-energy gamma rays when they collide.
• Discovering these gamma rays could validate the existence of WIMPs or challenge existing theories about dark matter.

What are Gamma Rays?

• Gamma rays are a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with the shortest wavelengths and the highest energy.
• They are emitted by extreme cosmic phenomena such as pulsars, supernovae, black holes, and gamma-ray bursts.
• With energies exceeding 100,000 electron volts (eV), gamma rays are not visible to the human eye and can be hazardous due to their potential to damage living cells.
• While Earth’s atmosphere blocks gamma rays, ground-based telescopes use indirect detection methods.
• When cosmic gamma rays hit the atmosphere, they produce a cascade of particles that emit a faint Cherenkov radiation, a blue light detectable by specialized instruments like MACE.
• The MACE telescope is an Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope (IACT), designed to capture these flashes of light and study them.

About Cherenkov Radiation:

• Radiation emitted when a charged particle travels faster than the speed of light in a medium.
• Occurs only if the particle exceeds the local light speed in materials like air or water.
• Appears as a faint blue glow due to radiation in the visible and ultraviolet spectrum.
• Similar to a sonic boom, but for light, creating an electromagnetic shockwave.
• Commonly seen in nuclear reactors and in detecting high-energy cosmic particles.
• Used in atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes to study cosmic gamma rays.