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The Astrosat, scheduled for launch towards the end of the year, will be the country's first satellite entirely dedicated to astronomy.
Astronomers are excited about the prospects thrown up by the Astrosat which is expected to give India an edge in observing the universe.
"The Astrosat will carry the best ultraviolet telescope ever flown," said Dipankar Bhattacharya, a senior astrophysicist with the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) on the sidelines of the 96th Indian Science Congress in Shillong.
Besides IUCAA, premier institutions like the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Raman Research Institute and Physical Research Laboratory will also be participating in the Astrosat project which is funded by the Indian Space Research Organisation.
The satellite will be a multi-wavelength observatory in space with instruments surveying the sky in ultraviolet, soft x-rays and hard x-rays bands.
Scientists claim that the Astrosat have the best spectroscopic instrument to study hard x-rays which would be 10 times more sensitive than the current instruments on the Integra and Rossini missions.
Orbiting 650 km above the earth's surface, the Rs 200 crore Astrosat would also facilitate study of astrophysical objects ranging from nearby solar system objects to distant stars and objects at cosmological distances.
Since most astronomical objects in the known universe emit radiations from long wavelength radio emission to extremely short wavelength gamma rays, understanding of the physical processes causing frequency dependent, time-variable phenomena would require near simultaneous multi-frequency observations.
Astrosat would also enable timing studies of variables from pulsations of the 'hot white dwarfs' to active galactic nuclei with time scales ranging from millisecond to few hours to days.
Other objectives included broadband spectroscopic studies of galaxy clusters and stellar coronae, studies of periodic and non-periodic variability of x-ray sources, monitoring intensity of known sources and detecting outbursts and luminosity variations.
Astrosat's system configuration comprises Large Area Xanon-filled Gas Proportional Counters, Cadmium-Zinc Telluride (CZT) detector-based hard x-ray telescope, an imaging telescope based on conical foil mirrors for x-ray reflection, a scanning x-ray sky monitor and an optical telescope combining ultra-violet and visible processes.
With a mass of 1,650 tonnes, Astrosat will gather 120 gigabytes of data through four orbits. The mission would have a minimum lifespan of five years.
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Sir,Whenever we hear about the great stories of developments, progress and achievements, our country is gaining, it certainly brings great joy for us, as Indians, whether we are living in India, or in a foreign country. Unfortunately, during the period of CHANDRAYAN mission, incident of Bombay terrorist-attack took place, and somehow, we have forgotten about our this important experiment. The media is still so much busy with this the story and aftereffects of this shocking event, even after nearly one and a half month, we seem to have forgotten to check, what is happening about the results, the CHANDRAYAN mission could be sending to us. So, I appeal to the Media to regularly put the results of the Mission before the public, and the world.I also urge the Scientists of ISHRO to immediately think about creating a SPY SATELLITE, which can reveal the movements of the enemy, their military movements and crossborder intrusions, taking places unabeted. THIS IS THE MOST URGENT ISSUE.
All the Best on your mission.. The Space research team in India seems to be a highly motivated team.. I just hope the Indian defence R