Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT)

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Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) celebrates 10 Years of Operation of the UltraViolet Imaging Telescope on board AstroSat.

AstroSat – Launched on September 28, 2015, carrying 5 payloads spanning ultraviolet to X-ray bands.
The UVIT is the primary payload of AstroSat among the 5 payloads.
UVIT’s core science areas –
- Star formation in the Galaxy and nearby galaxies
- Star formation history of the universe
- Hot stars in globular clusters
- Planetary nebulae
- Transients and variability studies in UV

UVIT’s Feature & Role –

India’s 1^st ultraviolet (UV) space telescope, unique globally for combining a large field of view with high spatial resolution(<1.5 arcseconds).
Far-UV Observation Capability – The only operational telescope (besides the Hubble Space Telescope) capable of observing in the far-ultraviolet spectrum.
Twin Telescope System – It observes near-UV (200–300 nm) and visual bands (320–550 nm) & far-UV (130–180 nm)
Collaborations – Led by IIA, with support from IUCAA (Pune), TIFR (Mumbai), multiple ISRO centres (ISAC/URSC, LEOS, IISU, SAC), and the Canadian Space Agency.
Set up Special “Clean Rooms” at IIA’s CREST campus (Hosakote) for sensitive fabrication.
Key Discoveries & Highlights
- Hot compact companion stars of Be stars
- Blue Straggler Stars in clusters
- Novae in the Andromeda galaxy
- Extended UV disks in dwarf galaxies & planetary nebulae
- Emission from distant galaxies at redshift 1.42
- Correlations between UV and X-ray emissions in active galactic nuclei
- Young star formation characteristics in galaxies
Future Plans – India could now develop a bigger, next-generation space telescope called INSIST (Indian Spectroscopic and Imaging Space Telescope).

To know about AstroSat, click here

References