AstroSat, a dedicated multi-wavelength satellite of India, has detected a galaxy named AUDFs01 which is located 9.3 billion light-years away from planet Earth. This study was first published on August 24, 2020, in Nature Astronomy. Dr. Kanak Saha, associate professor of astronomy from Pune-based IUCAA led this major breakthrough with an international team of astronomers. The galaxy (AUDFs01) is reported to be located in the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field.
What is AstroSat?
AstroSat is India’s first full-fledged astronomy satellite which was launched on September 28, 2015. This space observatory was blasted off on ISRO’s PSLV-C30 rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre First Launchpad.
Five instruments are mounted on AstroSat are responsible for detecting different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. These payloads are discussed further.
Payloads on AstroSat
For simultaneous multi-wavelength study a total of 5 astronomical payloads along with a Charged Particle Monitor (CPM) are availabe on board. These are listed below.
- UVIT – The Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) consists a twin setup of 38 cm to cover far-UV optical bands.
- LAXPC – It is a cluster of 3 co-aligned Large Area Xenon Proportional Counters (LAXPC) to cover medium energy X-rays of 3 to 80 keV range.
- SXT – A Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) works on focusing optics using gold-coated conical foil mirrors along with a deep depletion CCD camera to cover an immaging range of 0.3–8.0 keV.
- CZTI – A Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride Imager (CZTI) works as a hard X-ray imager covering 10 to 150 keV band. The imager is fitted with a 2D coded mask for better imaging.
- SSM – The Scanning Sky Monitor (SSM) consists of three position sensitive proportional counters fitted with 1D coded mask. The assemmbly of SSM is mounted on a rotating platform to detect transient X-ray sources.
Additional unit of Charged Particle Monitor is provided to assist the operations of other payloads. It also helps prevent damage of detectors and reduces the aging effect in LAXPC.
As the operation time of current sky scanner AstroSat is approcing to its end, ISRO is also planning to launch AstroSat-2 space telescope.
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AUDFs01 Star Galaxy observation
Surprisingly the observation by AstroSat is not a recent one rather it was done earlier in October 2016 but post-observation took nearly two years for data analysis and to ascertain that the detected emissions are coming from a distant galaxy.
This should be noted that this observation was not possible from Earth as our atmosphere blocks the UV radiation that is why scientists employed AstroSat which is located in a 650-kilometer orbit above Earth.
The Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) where this new galaxy has been identified lies at the center of Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF). Thousands of galaxies reside in the HUDF. There are around 5,500 galaxies in the XDF, some of which are nearly as old as our universe and hence are approximately 13.7 billion years old (the age of the universe). The youngest galaxy in the XDF came into existence around 450 million years after the Big Bang.
AstroSat vs Hubble Space Telescope
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is a great example of modern telescopy. It has an enormous contribution when it comes to aestheticism in science. But it was the noise reduction technique of AstroSat that made this breakthrough possible where Hubble Space Telescope couldn’t detect it.
Importance of The Discovery
There are four sub-regions of UV radiations that are near UV, middle UV, far UV, and extreme UV. The discovery of this far star galaxy that is located in the extreme UV region will be helpful to provide a clue for how the dark age ended and to find the earliest sources of light.