UltraViolet Imaging Telescope on AstroSat completes decade of science operations

Key facts

• The UltraViolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) on board AstroSat, India’s first dedicated space observatory, has completed ten years of operations.
• UVIT is India’s only ultraviolet space instrument and one of the few worldwide capable of far-UV observations apart from the Hubble Space Telescope.
• In ten years the telescope has observed 1,451 targets and contributed to about 300 research papers and 19 doctoral theses.
• Findings include hot compact companions to Be stars, blue stragglers in clusters, extended UV discs in dwarf galaxies, novae in Andromeda, UV emission from distant galaxies at redshift 1.42 and links between UV and X-ray emission from active galactic nuclei.
• The telescope is built as a twin system: one unit studies the near-UV (200–300 nanometres) and visible bands, while the other captures the far-UV (130–180 nanometres).
• The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) built and delivered the telescope from its Hosakote campus, designed to capture ultraviolet light that cannot be studied from the ground.
• Development involved a national consortium including the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai and multiple ISRO centres.
• Improved image products are being uploaded to ISRO’s PRADAN archive and discussions point to a proposed successor mission, the Indian Spectroscopic and Imaging Space Telescope.