AstroSat Mission:
A team of Indian astrophysicists has used observations from AstroSat to discover the aperiodic modulation of high-energy X-ray photons in Swift J1727.8-1613, a black hole binary source.
- AstroSat Mission is the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission aimed at studying celestial sources in the X-ray, optical and UV spectral bands simultaneously.
- AstroSat, with a lift-off mass of 1515 kg, was launched on September 28, 2015, into a 650 km orbit by PSLV-C30 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
- AstroSat carries a total of five scientific payloads enabling imaging, studying the temporal and spectral properties of galactic and extra- galactic cosmic sources in a wide range of wavelengths on a common platform.
- One of the unique features of AstroSat mission is that it enables simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of various astronomical objects with a single satellite.
- The spacecraft control centre at Mission Operations Complex (MOX) ofISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bengaluru, manages the satellite during its entire mission life.
- The main scientific objectives of AstroSat mission are:
- To understand the high energy processes in interacting binary systems with a compact object accreting matter from a companion star.
- Study star birth regions and high-energy processes in star systems lying beyond our galaxy.
- Detect new transient X-ray sources in the sky.
- Perform a limited deep-field survey of the Universe in the Ultraviolet region.
