Context:
India’s SARAS radio telescope has helped scientists determine the properties of the earliest radio luminous galaxies formed 200 million years after the Big Bang, a period known as the Cosmic Dawn.
Relevance:
GS III: Science and Technology
Dimensions of the Article:
- About SARAS 3
- What are the Findings?
About SARAS 3
- The SARAS 3 radio telescope was invented and built by the astronomers at Raman Research Institute (RRI).
- It is the first telescope worldwide to reach the required sensitivity.
- SARAS aims to design, build and deploy in India a precision radio telescope to detect extremely faint radio wave signals from the depths of time, from our “Cosmic Dawn” when the first stars and galaxies formed in the early Universe
Radio Telescope:
- Weak radio light waves are collected, focused, amplified, and made available for examination by radio telescopes.
- They aid in the study of astronomical objects like as black holes, galaxies, and stars that emit naturally occurring radio radiation.
- These uniquely constructed telescopes study the light with the longest wavelengths, from 1 millimetre to over 10 meters.
- For reference, a nanometer is only 1/10,000th the thickness of a sheet of paper, while visible light wavelengths are only a few hundred nanometers long. In reality, we typically refer to radio light by its frequency rather than its wavelength.
What are the Findings?
- The new information on the period Cosmic Dawn gave an insight into the properties of the earliest radio loud galaxies that are usually powered by supermassive black holes.
- SARAS 3 had improved the understanding of astrophysics of Cosmic Dawn by telling astronomers that less than 3% of the gaseous matter within early galaxies was converted into stars, and that the earliest galaxies that were bright in radio emission were also strong in X-rays, which heated the cosmic gas in and around the early galaxies.
-Source: Indian Express
