SARAS 3 Radio Telescope

Why in news?

• Recently, Indian researchers at SARAS 3 Radio Telescope have conclusively refuted a recent claim of the discovery of a radio wave signal from cosmic dawn.

More about the news:

• In 2018 a team of researchers from Arizona State University (ASU) and MIT in the US detected a signal from stars emerging in the early universe using data from the EDGES radio telescope.
• The study published in the journal Nature created much excitement in the astronomy community around the world.
• ASU/MIT team had claimed the discovery of a radio wave signaling the birth of the First Stars
• However, utilizing the indigenously invented and built SARAS 3 radio telescope, researchers from Raman Research Institute, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India refuted this claim.

About SARAS 3 Radio Telescope:

• SARAS 3 radio telescope was invented and built by the astronomers at Raman Research Institute.
• SARAS aims to design, build and deploy in India a precision radio telescope to detect extremely faint radio wave signals from the depths of time, from our “Cosmic Dawn”.
  • Cosmic Dawn is the time in the infancy of our Universe when the first stars and galaxies came into existence.
• The signal from Cosmic Dawn is expected to arrive on Earth stretched in wavelength to meters and lowered in frequency by the expansion of the Universe to lie in the radio frequency band 50-200 MHz.

Add ons:

• Detecting a Radio wave signal from Cosmic Dawn is extremely difficult.
• This is because the celestial signal is exceptionally faint – buried in sky radio waves that come to us from the gas in our own Galaxy, the Milky Way, which are a million times brighter.
• Besides, this cosmic signal is in a radio wavelength band used by numerous terrestrial communications equipment and TV and FM radio stations, which makes detecting the extra-terrestrial signal extremely difficult.

PRACTICE QUESTION

Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding ‘SARAS 3 radio telescope’?

1. SARAS 3 radio telescope was indigenously built in India

2. It aims to detect extremely faint radio wave signals from our Cosmic Dawn

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer