The Centre has sanctioned Rs 1,300 crore as India’s contribution to the Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) – an international astronomical observatory in the USA — signalling India’s interest to participate in major global research programmes.
The Cabinet approval came on a day when an Indian space probe reached the Mars.
To be constructed at a cost of $1.47 billion, the TMT will be located at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Besides India, other members in the global consortium are USA, Canada, Japan and China. India’s contribution is 10 per cent the total project cost.
Almost 70 per cent of Indian contribution of Rs 1,299.8 crore between 2014-23 will be in kind as India will construct some of the instruments for the giant telescope. In return, Indian scientists will get 25 to 30 exclusive observing nights on the telescope every year.
“Astronomers have a wide range of interest that can be studied using the TMT. They range from solar systems to the very edge of the universe. The instrument can also be used to study several other aspects of cosmology and how the universe evolved,” A N Ramprakash, a scientist at Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune and one of the Indian coordinators of TMT project said.
The TMT will be one of the largest optical-infrared telescopes to come up in the next decade. Its 30-metre diameter primary mirror will consist of 492 segments of 1.44 metre diameter each.
These mirror segments will be cleverly positioned relative to each other through sophisticated sensors, actuators and control systems, so that the entire assembly behaves like single monolithic mirror.