Representational photo. (Getty)

MUMBAI: India is playing a key role in the design and development of the world’s largest optical telescope—the Thirty Meter Telescope , or TMT, to be built at Mauna Kea in Hawaii .

Addressing scientists at Nehru Science Centre in Worli on Thursday as part of ‘Vigyan Samagam’, A N Ramaprakash, associate programme director of TMT, India, who is with Inter University Centre For Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune, said India has a big share in the development of the telescope’s control system, software and instruments. Construction of the telescope is expected to begin this year, he said. Once commissioned in 2029-30, it will provide a bigger picture of the universe.

“Indian industries are making the telescope’s sensors, actuators and its mechanical support structure,” he said.

Work on the sensors is in progress in Puducherry, work on actuators is on at Bengalaru, some components are being made in Mumbai and the telescope control system in Pune.

According to him, India’s role extends to building and welding what is known as the ‘First Light Instrument’. Not only Indian industries, but the collaboration covers key Indian institutes. These include IUCAA, Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bengalaru and Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences in Nainital. Ravinder Bhatia, associate project manager, TMT, said the telescope will focus on new areas of astronomy and it will have 12 times better spatial resolution than Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope .

