CarpeDiem IAS • CarpeDiem IAS • CarpeDiem IAS •

AstroSat – India’s First Space Observatory completes a decade

29 Sep 2025 GS 3 Science & Technology
AstroSat – India’s First Space Observatory completes a decade Click to view full image

Context: India’s first dedicated space astronomy observatory, AstroSat, completed a decade of operations.

Launch & Mission

  • Launched: 28 September 2015 by PSLV-C30 (XL configuration) from Sriharikota.

  • India became the fourth country after the United States, Russia, and Japan to launch a multi-wavelength space observatory with the ASTROSAT mission

  • Designed Mission Life: 5 years; completing a decade.

  • First dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory of India.

  • The payloads cover the energy bands of Ultraviolet (Near and Far), limited optical and X-ray regime (0.3 keV to 100keV).

  • One of the unique features of AstroSat mission is that it enables the simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of various astronomical objects with a single satellite.

Scientific Significance

  • Observes the universe in UV, visible, low-energy X-ray, and high-energy X-ray regions simultaneously.

  • Enabled studies from black holes to neutron stars, nearby stars like Proxima Centauri, and galaxies up to 9.3 billion light years away.

  • Notable achievement: First-time detection of Far-Ultraviolet (FUV) photons from distant galaxies.

Five Payloads

  1. UVIT (Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope) – UV and visible range imaging.

  2. LAXPC (Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter) – high time resolution studies of X-ray sources.

  3. CZTI (Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride Imager) – hard X-ray imaging and polarization.

  4. SXT (Soft X-ray Telescope) – soft X-ray spectral studies.

  5. SSM (Scanning Sky Monitor) – monitors sky for transient X-ray sources.

Collaborations

  • Realised by ISRO with contributions from:

    • IUCAA (Pune), TIFR (Mumbai), IIA (Bengaluru), Raman Research Institute (Bengaluru).

    • International partners: Canada & United Kingdom institutions.

Importance

  • Put India in the league of space-faring nations with advanced astronomical observatories.

  • Complements ground-based astronomy by providing continuous, simultaneous multi-band data.

  • Strengthened India’s capability in astrophysics, stellar evolution, black hole studies, and high-energy cosmic phenomena.



← Back to list