Ooty Radio Telescope
Encyclopedia
The Ooty Radio Telescope is located in Muthorai near Ootacamund
(Ooty), south India
. It is part of the National centre of Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) of the well known Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
(TIFR) which is funded by the Government of India
through the Department of atomic energy
. The Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT) is a 530 m long and 30 m wide Cylindrical Paraboloid telescope. It operates at a frequency of 326.5 MHz with a maximum bandwidth of 15 MHz at the front-end.
has been designed and fabricated with domestic Indian technological resources. The ORT was completed in 1970 and continues to be one of the most sensitive radio telescopes in the world.
Observations made using this telescope have led to important discoveries and to explain various phenomena occurring in our solar system
and in other celestial bodies.
The reflecting surface of the telescope is made of 1100 thin stainless-steel wires running parallel to each other for the entire length of the cylinder and supported on 24 steerable parabolic
frames.
An array of 1056 half-wave dipoles in front of a 90 degrees corner reflector forms the primary feed of the telescope.
which allows tracking of celestial sources for up to ten hours in the east-west direction. In the north-south direction, the telescope operates as a phased-array and is steerable by varying the phase gradients
The telescope can be operated in either total power or correlation mode. In each mode, 12 beams are formed and Beam 1 is the southern most beam and Beam 12 is the northern most. These 12-beam systems are useful in sky-survey type of observations. Recently, the reflecting surface of the ORT has been refurbished. A new digital back-end has been built for the ORT by the colleagues at Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bangalore.
e and pulsars, One long-term program determined the angular structure of several hundred distant radio galaxies and quasars using the lunar occultation method.
The application of this database to observational cosmology
provided independent evidence against the Steady State theory
and supported the Big Bang model of the universe
.
The telescope is currently being used mainly to observee interplanetary scintillation
, which may provide valuable information about the solar wind
and magnetic storm
s that affect the near - earth environment. Interplanetary scintillation observations provide a database to understand space weather changes and their predictability.
(608 MHz to 614 MHz, important radio astronomy frequencies) with lesser performance.
Ootacamund
Ootacamund , is a town, a municipality and the district capital of the Nilgiris district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Ootacamund is a popular hill station located in the Nilgiri Hills...
(Ooty), south India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. It is part of the National centre of Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) of the well known Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research is a research institution in India dedicated to basic research in mathematics and the sciences. It is a Deemed University and works under the umbrella of the Department of Atomic Energy of the Government of India. It is located at Navy Nagar, Colaba, Mumbai...
(TIFR) which is funded by the Government of India
Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
through the Department of atomic energy
Department of Atomic Energy (India)
The Department of Atomic Energy is a department directly under the Prime Minister of India with headquartered in Mumbai. The department is responsible for nuclear technology, including nuclear power and research....
. The Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT) is a 530 m long and 30 m wide Cylindrical Paraboloid telescope. It operates at a frequency of 326.5 MHz with a maximum bandwidth of 15 MHz at the front-end.
Design
The Ooty Radio telescopeRadio telescope
A radio telescope is a form of directional radio antenna used in radio astronomy. The same types of antennas are also used in tracking and collecting data from satellites and space probes...
has been designed and fabricated with domestic Indian technological resources. The ORT was completed in 1970 and continues to be one of the most sensitive radio telescopes in the world.
Observations made using this telescope have led to important discoveries and to explain various phenomena occurring in our solar system
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
and in other celestial bodies.
The reflecting surface of the telescope is made of 1100 thin stainless-steel wires running parallel to each other for the entire length of the cylinder and supported on 24 steerable parabolic
Parabola
In mathematics, the parabola is a conic section, the intersection of a right circular conical surface and a plane parallel to a generating straight line of that surface...
frames.
An array of 1056 half-wave dipoles in front of a 90 degrees corner reflector forms the primary feed of the telescope.
History
The structure of a radio telescope was designed in July 1963. Muthorai village near Ooty was selected as the suitable location and the construction work began in 1965. The telescope was completed in 1969. Normal post commissioning and calibration use began in 1971.Features
The large size of the telescope makes it highly sensitive. As an example, it is in principle capable of detecting signals from a mere 1 watt radio station located 10 million km away in space. The telescope sits on a natural slope of 11°, which matches the latitude of the location. This gives the telescope an equatorial mountEquatorial mount
An equatorial mount is a mount for instruments that follows the rotation of the sky by having one rotational axis parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation. This type of mount is used for astronomical telescopes and cameras...
which allows tracking of celestial sources for up to ten hours in the east-west direction. In the north-south direction, the telescope operates as a phased-array and is steerable by varying the phase gradients
The telescope can be operated in either total power or correlation mode. In each mode, 12 beams are formed and Beam 1 is the southern most beam and Beam 12 is the northern most. These 12-beam systems are useful in sky-survey type of observations. Recently, the reflecting surface of the ORT has been refurbished. A new digital back-end has been built for the ORT by the colleagues at Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bangalore.
Observations
The ORT has produced results on radio galaxies, quasars, supernovaSupernova
A supernova is a stellar explosion that is more energetic than a nova. It is pronounced with the plural supernovae or supernovas. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months...
e and pulsars, One long-term program determined the angular structure of several hundred distant radio galaxies and quasars using the lunar occultation method.
The application of this database to observational cosmology
Cosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
provided independent evidence against the Steady State theory
Steady State theory
In cosmology, the Steady State theory is a model developed in 1948 by Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, Hermann Bondi and others as an alternative to the Big Bang theory...
and supported the Big Bang model of the universe
Universe
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
.
The telescope is currently being used mainly to observee interplanetary scintillation
Interplanetary scintillation
In astronomy, interplanetary scintillation refers to random fluctuations in the intensity of radio waves of celestial origin, on the timescale of a few seconds. It is analogous to the twinkling one sees looking at stars in the sky at night, but in the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum...
, which may provide valuable information about the solar wind
Solar wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It mostly consists of electrons and protons with energies usually between 1.5 and 10 keV. The stream of particles varies in temperature and speed over time...
and magnetic storm
Magnetic storm
Magnetic storm can refer to:* A geomagnetic storm* Magnetic Storm , the title of a book of paintings by Roger Dean* Magnetic Storm , the title of an hourlong PBS NOVA documentary about Earth's changing magnetic fields...
s that affect the near - earth environment. Interplanetary scintillation observations provide a database to understand space weather changes and their predictability.
Upgrade of Ooty Radio Telescope
The upgraded telescope has been used for observing pulse nulling.The interferomiter can be used at Channel 37Channel 37
Channel 37 is an unused television channel in countries using the M and N broadcast television system standards. Channel 37 occupies a band of UHF frequencies from 608 to 614 MHz, frequencies that are particularly important to radio astronomy...
(608 MHz to 614 MHz, important radio astronomy frequencies) with lesser performance.
Ongoing Projects
- IPS observations: The interplanetary scintillation (IPS) observations obtained from the Ooty Radio Telescope on a large number of radio sources provide the day-to-day changes of the solar wind speed and density turbulence in the inner heliosphere.
- Pulsar Timing observations
- Spectral line observations