Indian Institute of Astrophysics to Develop World’s Largest Solar Telescope

The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore in the first week of January 2013 informed about its decision to come up with world’s largest solar telescope in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir. The project would commence by the end of year 2013 and the telescope is likely to be placed at Hanle or Merak village near Pangong Lake in Ladakh. The telescope would be a 2-metre class, state-of-the-art National Large Solar Telescope (NLST). It’s expected that the project would complete by 2017. The project has been planned with a budget of 300 crore rupees and after installation, it would help the astrophysicists capable of practicing day and night astronomy. This telescope would help the researchers to understand the process of creation and decay of sunspots along with other fundamental processes that takes place on the surface of sun. This telescope would also help in filling the longitudinal gap between Europe and Japan. The telescope with its innovative design and backend instruments would also provide crucial information on nature of magnetic fields due to its unprecedented spatial resolution.