PRINSLI WORLD

International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT)

India gets the world’s first Liquid-Mirror Telescope for astronomy that will track space debris and asteroids.

The International Liquid-Mirror Telescope (ILMT) has been set up at the Devasthal Observatory campus owned by Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital in Uttarakhand.

In early 2022, the telescope, which will observe asteroids, supernovae, space debris and all other celestial objects from an altitude of 2,450 metres in the Himalayas, saw its first light as it peered into the zenith from the Devasthal observatory in Uttarakhand.

ILMT will be the third telescope facility to come up at Devasthal, one of the world’s pristine sites for obtaining astronomical observations.

With ILMT set to commence full-scale scientific operations in October this year, it will work along with the 3.6-metre Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT), the largest telescope operating in India (of the 4-metre class).