New Delhi: ISRO celebrated a decade of discoveries by AstroSat, the first dedicated space observatory launched by India. The satellite was deployed by the PSLV-C30 flight on 28 December, 2015, and is a multiwavelength space telescope, capable of peering into the X-ray and UV sky, as well as optical frequencies. Over 10 years of observations, AstroSat has shed light on why a red giant star is unusually bright in both UV and infrared light, detected far-UV photos from nine billion lightyears away, and has captured the sharpest wide angle UV views of space, revealing that the emissions from the butterfly nebula extends three times beyond previous estimates.
With its capabilities of observing energetic light, AstroSat has investigated some of the most extreme physics in the universe, including galaxy mergers, fast spinning black holes, and rejuvenated blue straggler stars in globular clusters. The mission is a collaboration between multiple academic institutes in the country including TIFR, IIA and IUCAA that have all contributed to the development of the five scientific payloads on board, as well as major ISRO centres across the country including URSC, LEOS, SAV, VSSC and PRL. Over 3,400 scientists from across 57 countries across the world have registered to access the AstroSat data from the Astrobrowse portal, including from USA, Afghanistan and Angola.
ISRO opens AstroSat Data to General Public
About half of the users of AstroSat are researchers and students from India. The AstroSat mission has far exceeded its designed life, but all the five science instruments on board continue to operate nominally, and AstroSat is expected to continue providing valuable observations for years into the future. ISRO has opened up the AstroSat data to the general public, which is now available on the Pradan platform in addition to AstroBrowse. The observations from the UV instrument and the Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI) have already been posted. This data was previously available only to scientists.