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Spectrography-Aries Devasthal Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (ADFOSC) |
CONTEXT:
- Indian Scientists have indigenously designed and developed a low-cost optical spectrograph that can locate sources of faint light from distant galaxies.
ADFOSC:
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Named as: Aries-Devasthal Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (ADFOSC).
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Developed by: Aryabhatta Research Institute of observational sciences (ARIES).
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It is based in Nainital.
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It is an autonomous institute of Department of Science and Technology (DST).
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FEATURES OF THE SPECTROGRAPH:
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The spectrograph is about 2.5 times less costly compared to the imported ones.
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The total cost of this instrument is nearly Rs 4 Crore.
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Largest in india: It is the largest of its kind among the existing astronomical spectrographs in the country.
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Commissioned: On 3.6-m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT), the largest in the country and in Asia, near Nainital in Uttarakhand.
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It uses a complex arrangement of several lenses made of special glasses, polished to better than 5-nanometer smoothness to produce sharp images of the celestial sky.
WORKING:
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It can locate sources of light with a photon-rate as low as about 1 photon per second.
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Photons coming from distant celestial sources, collected by the telescope, are sorted into different colours by the spectrograph and are finally converted into electronic recordable signals using an in-house developed Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) camera.
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It is cooled to an extremely low temperature of -120 degree celsius.
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Use of spectrograph: To study
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Distant quasars and galaxies in a very young universe,
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Regions around supermassive black-holes around the galaxies,
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Cosmic explosions like supernovae and highly energetic gamma-ray bursts, young and massive stars, and faint dwarf galaxies.
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Aatmanirbhar in astronomy: “The indigenous efforts to build complex instruments like ADFOSC in India is an important step to become ‘Aatmanirbhar’ in the field of astronomy & astrophysics,”
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Future Plans: With this expertise, ARIES now plans to commission more complex instruments such as spectro-polarimeter and high spectral resolution spectrograph on the 3.6-m Devasthal telescope in the near future.
SOURCE: PIB