- On March 21, 2023, Union Minister of State for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences (Independent Charge), Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space Dr. Jitendra Singh inaugurated Asia’s largest 4-meter International Liquid Mirror telescope.
- Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) has announced that the world-class 4- meter International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) is now ready to detect deep celestial activities.
- This telescope is located at an altitude of 2450 meters in the observatory complex at Deosthal in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand (India) at AREES, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.
- The ILMT employs a 4-meter-diameter rotating mirror made up of a thin layer of liquid mercury to collect and focus light. Mercury is in liquid form at room temperature and at the same time, highly reflective, and hence, it is ideally suited to form such a mirror.
- The ILMT is designed to survey the strip of the sky passing overhead each night, allowing it to detect transient or variable celestial objects such as supernovae, gravitational lenses, space debris, and asteroids.
- ILMT is the first liquid mirror telescope specially designed for astronomical observation and is the largest aperture telescope currently available in the country and is also the first optical survey telescope in India.
Union Minister inaugurated Asia’s largest 4-meter International Liquid Mirror telescope
