GROWTH-India Telescope

About GROWTH-India Telescope: 

• It is India's first fully robotic optical research telescope
• The telescope's primary mission is to observe explosive transients and variable sources, including near-Earth asteroids.
• Location: The telescope is located at the Indian Astronomical Observatory site at Hanle, Ladakh. Situated at 4500 meters above mean sea level, this is one of the highest observatory sites in the world and one of the best telescope locations in the country.
  • It joins The Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) the gamma-ray array telescope (HAGAR), and the imaging Cherenkov telescope (MACE) at this site.
• It was constructed through a partnership between the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), with support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum.
• GROWTH-India project is part of an international network of observatories, known as the Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen (GROWTH).
  • It aims to provide continuous monitoring of interesting celestial events. The network's collaborative approach ensures that observations are not interrupted by daylight, allowing for comprehensive data collection.

Q1: What is an asteroid ?

An asteroid is a small, rocky object that orbits the Sun in our solar system. These celestial bodies vary in size from a few meters to hundreds of kilometers across. Most asteroids are found in the asteroid belt, a region of space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, although some can be found throughout the solar system.

Source: Indian telescope in Ladakh captures building-sized asteroid zoom past Earth