Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT)

Why in news?

• The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) near here has received the prestigious ''IEEE Milestone'' status that honours significant technical achievements and excellence in unique products, services, seminal papers and patents for the benefit of humanity,

About the Giant Metre wave Radio Telescope:

• Giant Metre wave Radio Telescope is an array of parabolic radio telescopes of 45 metre diameter, observing at metre wavelengths spread over distances of upto 25 km.
• It is located in Pune and operated by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, a part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.
• In August 2018 it discovered the most distant galaxy ever known, located at a distance of 12 billion light years.
• In February 2020, it helped in the observation of the biggest explosion in the history of the universe, the Ophiuchus Supercluster explosion.

Other major telescopes in India:

• Devasthal Optical Telescope, Nainital (Uttarakhand):
  • It is built by Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) and is currently the largest reflecting telescope in Asia.
• Indian Astronomical Observatory, Ladakh:
  • It is located near Leh in Ladakh
  • It has one of the world's highest sites for optical, infrared and gamma-ray telescopes.
  • It is operated by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore.
  • It is currently the third highest optical telescope in the world, situated at an elevation of 4,500 meters.

PRELIMS QUESTION

The thirty-meter telescope, a controversial project, recently in news is proposed to be located in:
(a)Tibet, China
(b)Hawaii, USA
(c)Eastern Siberia, Russia
(d)Greenland, Denmark

Answer to prelims question