10 Years of AstroSat

• AstroSat, India’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory, has completed a decade of operations.

About AstroSat

• AstroSat is India’s first, indigenously built, dedicated multi-wavelength space-based telescope observatory to study distant celestial objects.
• It is aimed at studying celestial sources in X-ray, optical and UV spectral bands simultaneously.
• It was launched in 2015 by PSLV-C30 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, into near-Earth equatorial orbit.
• Payloads:
  1. UVIT (Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope).
  2. LAXPC (Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter).
  3. CZTI (Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride Imager).
  4. SXT (Soft X-ray Telescope).
  5. SSM (Scanning Sky Monitor).
• Management: The Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bengaluru, is responsible for managing the satellite throughout its operational life
• Mission Life: Designed for 5 years, but operational even after 10 years.

Contributions

• Provided fresh insights into compact celestial objects such as black holes and neutron stars.
• Enabled observations of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star system to Earth.
• The first detection of Far Ultraviolet (FUV) photons from galaxies was achieved at 9.3 billion light-years away.
• Contributed extensive data to the global astronomy community, strengthening India’s role in collaborative research.