Uttarakhand

• 14 Dec 2021

Liquid Mirror Telescope

Why in News

• Recently, Dipankar Banerjee, scientist of Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (AIRES), told that soon Asia's largest Liquid Mirror Telescope, also known as Devasthali Optical Telescope (DOT) will be at Devasthal near Nainital in Uttarakhand. , will be installed.

Key Points

• Dipankar Banerjee said that the telescope could have been installed earlier, but it got delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the state. He said that the construction work of the telescope has been completed and it will be installed and inaugurated soon.
• A liquid mirror telescope coated with mercury is much cheaper than a normal telescope and can only see objects in space that come into its view, as it cannot be moved in different directions.
• It will be used to study celestial bodies such as stars, space debris and satellites that will pass through its focus.
• Currently, the largest such telescope in Asia has a diameter of 3.6 meters, while the telescope will measure four meters in diameter, making it the third largest telescope in the world after installation.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Belgian counterpart Charles Michel launched the telescope in March 2016. It has been built with the joint collaboration of Canada and Belgium at a cost of Rs 10 crore.