India’s first multi-wavelength space observatory, Astrosat has completed 10 years in orbit since its launch by PSLV-C30 on 28 September 2015. Astrosat is the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission.
- India’s first dedicated space astronomy observatory, Astrosat has completed a decade of its operation. India’s first multi-wavelength space observatory, Astrosat has completed 10 years in orbit since its launch by PSLV-C30 on 28 September, 2015.
- Astrosat is the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission whose objective is to study astronomical sources simultaneously in X-ray, optical and UV spectral bands. It enables multi-wavelength observation of various celestial bodies at the same time from a single satellite.
- It was launched into an orbit of 650 kilometers by PSLV-C30 from Sriharikota.
- A collaborative project of ISRO and major Indian research institutions with international partners (Canada, UK).
- Astrosat has a registered user base of about 3400 from 57 countries across the world ranging from the USA to Afghanistan and Angola. In India, Astrosat has helped popularize space science, taking astrophysics research to 132 Indian universities.
- The Mission Operations Center located at ISTRAC Bengaluru manages the operation work of Astrosat.
Scientific objectives of the mission:
- Understanding high-energy activities in binary star systems with neutron stars and black holes.
- Studying star birth regions and high-energy processes in stellar systems.
- Detecting new, transiently bright X-ray sources in the sky.
Discoveries and contributions:
- Solved a puzzle associated with unusual brightness of a red giant star.
- Detected far-UV photons from galaxies about 9 billion light years away.
- Showed extended emission of the Butterfly Nebula.
- Discovered fast-spinning black holes and studied X-ray binaries.
- Conducted X-ray polarization studies and captured galactic mergers.
- Provided India with a world-class astronomy platform, contributing to black hole, neutron star and galaxy studies.
- Nurtured a new generation of Indian astronomers, with half the users being students/researchers from India.
Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS)
- Recently, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in a draft notification has mandated that from 1 October, 2026, all new private and commercial electric vehicles (EV) must be equipped with AVAS.
- The purpose of this step is to alert pedestrians about such EVs which do not emit any sound and sometimes cause accidents.
About AVAS
- It is a safety feature in electric vehicles that emits different sounds at different speeds using external speakers to alert pedestrians about their presence.
- The USA, Japan and some European Union countries have already made the use of AVAS in hybrid vehicles mandatory.
