The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) has been selected as a ‘Milestone’ facility by the U.S.-based Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope is operated by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), which in turn is a part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. It was conceived and built under the supervision of Prof. Govind Swarup from 1984 to 1996.
The observatory of the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope is located about north of Pune at Khodad, while its office is located in the Savitribai Phule Pune University.
Astronomers from all over the world regularly use this telescope to observe many different astronomical objects such as HII regions, galaxies, pulsars, supernovae, and Sun and solar winds.
Note: GMRT is not an ISRO mission.
About GMRT
- The GMRT located near Pune is an array of thirty fully steerable parabolic radio telescopes of 45-metre diameter, observing at metre wavelengths.
- It is operated by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), a part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.
- It was conceived and built under the direction of the Late Prof. Govind Swarup from 1984 to 1996.
- At the time it was built, it was the world’s largest interferometric array offering a baseline of up to 25 kilometres (16 mi).
- Astronomers from all over the world regularly use this telescope to observe many different astronomical objects such as HII regions (interstellar atomic hydrogen that is ionized), galaxies, pulsars, supernovae, and Sun and solar winds.
A significant feat
- IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organisation dedicated to advancing technology in all areas related to electrical and electronics engineering.
- The IEEE Milestones programme honours significant technical achievements which have a global or regional impact. This is only the third such IEEE ‘Milestone’ recognition for an Indian contribution.
- The previous two Indian IEEE Milestones were for the pioneering work done by Sir J.C. Bose to demonstrate the generation and reception of radio waves in 1895 (recognised in 2012), and for the Nobel Prize-winning (in 1930) ‘scattering of light’ phenomenon observed by Sir C.V. Raman in 1928.
GMRT is a low-frequency radio telescope that helps investigate various radio astrophysical problems ranging from nearby solar systems to the edge of the observable universe.
Atomic hydrogen is the basic fuel required for star formation in a galaxy. When hot ionised gas from the surrounding medium of a galaxy falls onto the universe, the gas cools and forms atomic hydrogen. This then becomes molecular hydrogen and eventually leads to the formation of stars.
Understanding the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time requires tracing the evolution of neutral gas at different cosmological periods.
Atomic hydrogen emits radio waves of 21 cm wavelength, meaning the wavelength is a direct tracer of the atomic gas content in nearby and distant galaxies. However, this radio signal is feeble and nearly impossible to detect the emission from a distant galaxy using current telescopes due to their limited sensitivity.
Until now, the most distant galaxy detected using 21 cm emission was at redshift z=0.376, corresponding to a look-back time – the time elapsed between detecting the signal and its original emission – of 4.1 billion years.
Redshift represents the signal’s wavelength change depending on the object’s location and movement; a greater value of z indicates a farther object.
Using GMRT data, Arnab Chakraborty, a postdoctoral researcher at the department of physics and Trottier Space Institute of McGill University and Nirupam Roy, associate professor at, department of physics, IISc have detected a radio signal from atomic hydrogen in a distant galaxy at the redshift z=1.29.
The signal detected by the team was emitted from this galaxy when the universe was only 4.9 billion years old; in other words, the look-back time for this source is 8.8 billion years.
The team also observed that the atomic hydrogen mass of this particular galaxy is almost twice as high as its stellar mass. These results demonstrate the feasibility of observing atomic gas from galaxies at cosmological distances in similar lensed systems with a modest amount of observing time.
It also opens up exciting new possibilities for probing the cosmic evolution of neutral gas with existing and upcoming low-frequency radio telescopes soon.
