Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) is a research institute in

Nainital Nainital ( Kumaoni: ''Naintāl''; ) is a city and headquarters of Nainital district of Kumaon division, Uttarakhand, India. It is the judicial capital of Uttarakhand, the High Court of the state being located there and is the headquarters o ...

Kumaon Kumaon or Kumaun may refer to: * Kumaon division, a region in Uttarakhand, India * Kumaon Kingdom, a former country in Uttarakhand, India * Kumaon, Iran, a village in Isfahan Province, Iran * , a ship of the Royal Indian Navy during WWII See also ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

which specializes in

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

solar physics Solar physics is the branch of astrophysics that specializes in the study of the Sun. It deals with detailed measurements that are possible only for our closest star. It intersects with many disciplines of pure physics, astrophysics, and compu ...

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

and

atmospheric science Atmospheric science is the study of the Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere and its various inner-working physical processes. Meteorology includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics with a major focus on weather forecasting. Climat ...

. It is an autonomous body under the Department of Science and Technology,

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

. The institute is situated at Manora Peak (elevation ), about from

, headquarters of

Kumaon division Kumaon (; Kumaoni: ''Kumāū''; ; historically romanized as KemāonJames Prinsep (Editor)John McClelland ) is a revenue and administrative division in the Indian State of Uttarakhand. It spans over the eastern half of the state and is bounde ...

. The astronomical observatory is open to the public on afternoons, and on occasional moonlit nights with prior permission. Cc1 aries1

History

The institute was started on 20 April 1954 under the supervision of Dr. A. N. Singh as Uttar Pradesh State Observatory (UPSO) in the premises of the Government Sanskrit College, presently known as Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya,

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. With the formation of the State of

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

on 9 November 2000, and because of its geographical location within the boundaries of

, UPSO came under the administrative control of the Government of Uttarakhand and was re-christened as the State Observatory (SO). The institute was named as Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) when it came under the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India as an autonomous body on 22 March 2004.

Site

ARIES has of land at Manora Peak, Nainital on which functional and residential buildings are located. An additional has been acquired at Devasthal, nearly away by road, for new observational facilities. The site has about 200 clear nights in a year and the median ground level seeing is about 1".

Research facilities

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Belgian PM Charles Michel activate the ARIES Telescope located in Uttarakhand

Research activities at ARIES cover topics related to the sun, stars and galaxies. ARIES has made significant contributions particularly to the field of star clusters and

gamma-ray bursts In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the most energetic and luminous electromagnetic events since the Big Bang. Bursts can last from ten milli ...

(GRBs). The longitude of ARIES (79° East) locates it in the middle of a 180-degree wide longitude band having modern astronomical facilities lying between the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

(20° West) and

Eastern Australia The eastern states of Australia are the states adjoining the east continental coastline of Australia. These are the mainland states of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, and the island state of Tasmania. The Australian Capital Territory ...

(157° East). Therefore, observations which are not possible in the Canary Islands or Australia due to daylight can be made at ARIES. Because of its geographical location, ARIES has made contributions to many areas of astronomical research, particularly those involving time-critical phenomena (e.g., the first successful attempt in the country to observe optical afterglow of GRBs was carried out from ARIES). Many eclipsing binaries, variable stars, star clusters, nearby galaxies, GRBs, and supernovas have been observed from ARIES. The other research fields of the institute include solar astronomy, stellar astronomy, star clusters, stellar variability and pulsation, photometric studies of nearby galaxies, quasars, and transient events like supernovas and highly energetic gamma-ray bursts. A total solar eclipse lasting about 4 minutes was successfully observed from Manavgat, Antalya in Turkey on 29 March 2006 by a team of scientists from ARIES. In past, new ring systems around

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus (mythology), Uranus (Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars (mythology), Mars), grandfather ...

, and

Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...

were discovered from the observatory. Recently, a direct correlation between the intra-night optical variability and the degree of polarization of the radio jets in

quasars A quasar is an extremely luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is pronounced , and sometimes known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO. This emission from a galaxy nucleus is powered by a supermassive black hole with a mass rangi ...

was established based on the observations from ARIES. For the first time periodic oscillations are detected in optical intra-day variability data of

blazars A blazar is an active galactic nucleus (AGN) with a Astrophysical jet, relativistic jet (a jet composed of Plasma (physics), ionized matter traveling at nearly the speed of light) directed very nearly towards an observer. Relativistic beaming of ...

, which is useful to get the black hole mass of blazars, and also provide support to accretion disk-based models of AGNs.

Atmospheric Sciences

Nainital is located at a high altitude in the central Himalayas and away from cities or other major

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...

sources. This makes it suitable for carrying out observations on background conditions and for studying the regional environment, particularly interactions between natural and anthropogenic trace species and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. Additionally, the ARIES site can also provide information on long range transport of pollutants. Studies on lower atmospheric dynamics are also very important in this region, which is severely lacking over northern India.

Infrastructure

The Institute has in-house workshops to meet the requirements of electronic, mechanical, and optical maintenance of the instruments. ARIES has a modern computer center with Internet and a library with more than 10,000 volumes of research journals and a collection of books on astronomy, astrophysics and atmospheric science.

Facilities

* 3.6m Devasthal Optical Telescope * 1.3m Devasthal Optical Telescope * 104 cm Sampurnanand Telescope * Solar Telescope * 4m

International Liquid Mirror Telescope The International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) is a liquid-mirror telescope located at the Devasthal Observatory in Uttarakhand, India. History The International Liquid Mirror Telescope succeeds the NASA-LMT and the Large Zenith Telescope. ...

(ILMT) * Baker-Nunn Schmidt Telescope (BNST) * Stratosphere Troposphere Radar

References

Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences

External links

ARIES, Official website

at Department of Science and Technology website {{DEFAULTSORT:Aryabhatta Research Institute Of Observational Sciences Research institutes in Uttarakhand Astrophysics institutes Astronomical observatories in India Space programme of India Nainital Research institutes established in 1954 Organisations based in Uttarakhand 1954 establishments in Uttar Pradesh