ISRO gets groundbreaking telescope to track the Sun, space weather; will fly aboard ADITYA-1 spacecraft
The Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), based in Pune, has successfully developed a groundbreaking space telescope called the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT).
On June 6, IUCAA handed over the telescope to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), where it will be integrated into the ADITYA-L1 mission as a crucial instrument.
Once launched with the satellite, it will travel approximately 1.5 million kilometers towards the Sun, specifically to the L1 point, and provide regular updates and images of the Sun's surface phenomena and space weather.
Leading the project at IUCAA are Prof. AN Ramprakash and Prof. Durgesh Tripathi, who have collaborated closely with ISRO to create the SUIT. The observations captured by this telescope will place India among the leading nations in the field of ultraviolet Sun observation.
Ramprakash explained, “SUIT is one of the main payloads on Aditya-L1. It will provide full disk images of the Sun in the 2000 - 4000 A wavelength range. Full disk images in the entire wavelength range have never been obtained. Among many, there are a few fundamental questions that SUIT will address, for example, the existence of a higher temperature atmosphere above the cooler surface, the origin and variation of near-ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, and high energy explosions such as solar flares observed in the solar atmosphere, etc.”
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