India approves two new telescopes and Himalayan Chandra Telescope upgrade in Ladakh

Key facts

• Union Budget sanctioned National Large Solar Telescope (NLST), a 2-metre aperture solar telescope to be built in Merak near Pangong Tso lake, Ladakh.
• NLST will operate in visible and near-infrared wavelengths and help study solar dynamics, magnetism, energetic solar events, and space-weather processes affecting Earth and national space assets.
• NLST will be India’s third ground-based solar observatory, joining Kodaikanal Solar Observatory (Tamil Nadu, 1899) and Udaipur Solar Observatory (Rajasthan, 1975).
• National Large Optical–Near Infrared Telescope (NLOT) will be a 13.7-metre segmented-mirror telescope with 90 hexagonal segments, to be built in Hanle, Ladakh.
• NLOT will enable frontier research on exoplanets, stellar and galactic evolution, supernovae, and origins of the universe, leveraging Ladakh’s high altitude and clear skies.
• Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) will be upgraded from 2-metre to 3.7-metre segmented primary mirror and continue optical-infrared observations of transient astronomy.
• Upgraded HCT operations will complement international facilities like LIGO-India and the Square Kilometre Array.
• Hanle village in Ladakh is India’s first and only Dark Sky Reserve.