The National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) (

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

:राष्ट्रीय रेडियो खगोल भौतिकी केन्द्र) of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

is a

research institution A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often i ...

in India in the field of

radio astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The first detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation comin ...

is located in the

Pune University Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), formerly the University of Poona, is a collegiate public state university located in the city of Pune, India. It was established in 1949, and is spread over a campus in the neighbourhood of Ganeshk ...

Campus (just beside IUCAA), is part of the

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is a public deemed research university located in Mumbai, India that is dedicated to basic research in mathematics and the sciences. It is a Deemed University and works under the umbrella of the ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

, India. NCRA has an active

research Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

program in many areas of

Astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

and

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 ...

, which includes studies of the Sun,

Interplanetary scintillation In astronomy, interplanetary scintillation refers to random fluctuations in the intensity of radio waves of celestial origin, on the timescale of a few seconds. It is analogous to the twinkling one sees looking at stars in the sky at night, but ...

pulsar A pulsar (from ''pulsating radio source'') is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its magnetic poles. This radiation can be observed only when a beam of emission is pointing toward Ea ...

s, the

Interstellar medium In astronomy, the interstellar medium is the matter and radiation that exist in the space between the star systems in a galaxy. This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, as well as dust and cosmic rays. It fills interstella ...

Active galaxies An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that has a much-higher-than-normal luminosity over at least some portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with characteristics indicating that the luminosity is not pro ...

and

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

and particularly in the specialized field of Radio Astronomy and Radio

instrumentation Instrumentation a collective term for measuring instruments that are used for indicating, measuring and recording physical quantities. The term has its origins in the art and science of scientific instrument-making. Instrumentation can refer to ...

. NCRA also provides exciting opportunities and challenges in

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

fields such as analog and

digital electronics Digital electronics is a field of electronics involving the study of digital signals and the engineering of devices that use or produce them. This is in contrast to analog electronics and analog signals. Digital electronic circuits are usu ...

signal Processing Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing '' signals'', such as sound, images, and scientific measurements. Signal processing techniques are used to optimize transmissions, ...

antenna Antenna ( antennas or antennae) may refer to: Science and engineering * Antenna (radio), also known as an aerial, a transducer designed to transmit or receive electromagnetic (e.g., TV or radio) waves * Antennae Galaxies, the name of two collid ...

design,

telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that ...

and

software development Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development invo ...

. NCRA has set up the

Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), located near Pune, Junnar, near Narayangaon at khodad in India, is an array of thirty fully steerable parabolic radio telescopes of 45 metre diameter, observing at metre wavelengths. It is operated by t ...

(GMRT), the world's largest

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to obse ...

operating at meter

wavelength In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, tr ...

s located at

Khodad Khodad is a town in the Pune district of Maharashtra state, India. Khodad Village is situated in Junner taluka of Pune district of Maharashtra state, India. It is famous for Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), the largest telescope at metre ...

, 80 km from

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

. NCRA also operates the

Ooty Radio Telescope The Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT) is located in Muthorai near Ooty, in southern India. It is part of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), which is funded by the Government of Indi ...

(ORT), which is a large Cylindrical Telescope located near

Udhagamandalam Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and sou ...

, India.NCRA Website Home Page
/ref>

History

The Centre has its roots in the

Radio Astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The first detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation comin ...

Group of

TIFR Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is a public deemed research university located in Mumbai, India that is dedicated to basic research in mathematics and the sciences. It is a Deemed University and works under the umbrella of the D ...

, set up in the early 1960s under the leadership of

Govind Swarup Govind Swarup (March 23, 1929 – September 7, 2020) was a pioneer in radio astronomy. In addition to research contributions in multiple areas of astronomy and astrophysics, he was a driving force behind the building of "ingenious, innovative ...

. The group designed and built the Ooty Radio Telescope. In the early 80's an ambitious plan for a new telescope was proposed - the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope. Since the site chosen for this new telescope was close to Pune, a new home for the group was built in the scenic campus of Pune University. The radio astronomy group morphed into the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics around this time.A brief history of NCRA

Research

The National Centre for Radio Astrophysics of the

(NCRA-TIFR) is a institute for radio astronomy in India. Research activities at NCRA-TIFR are centered on low frequency radio astronomy, with research in a wide range of areas, including solar physics,

pulsars A pulsar (from ''pulsating radio source'') is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its magnetic poles. This radiation can be observed only when a beam of emission is pointing toward E ...

active galactic nuclei An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that has a much-higher-than-normal luminosity over at least some portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with characteristics indicating that the luminosity is not prod ...

, the interstellar medium,

supernova remnants A supernova remnant (SNR) is the structure resulting from the explosion of a star in a supernova. The supernova remnant is bounded by an expanding shock wave, and consists of ejected material expanding from the explosion, and the interstellar ma ...

, the

Galactic Center The Galactic Center or Galactic Centre is the rotational center, the barycenter, of the Milky Way galaxy. Its central massive object is a supermassive black hole of about 4 million solar masses, which is called Sagittarius A*, a compact ra ...

, nearby

galaxies A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System ...

, high-

redshift In physics, a redshift is an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy, of electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The opposite change, a decrease in wavelength and simultaneous increase in fr ...

galaxies, Fundamental Constant Evolution, and the epoch of reionization. NCRA-TIFR has built and operates the largest steerable

radio telescope A radio telescope is a specialized antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the radio frequency ...

in the world, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, as well as the Ooty Radio Telescope, and work at the frontiers of astronomy and astrophysics, as well as in instrumentation development.NCRA Research Areas
/ref>A Details Description of NCRA Research Areas
/ref> In April 2019, scientists of the NCRA led by Divya Oberoi published few of the deepest radio images of the sun.

Research Facilities

Research facilities of NCRA includes a well-furnished Library both at NCRA and GMRT, Computing Facilities, Radio Physics Laboratory(A joint initiative of NCRA-TIFR and IUCAA) and above all two radio telescopes GMRT and ORT.

Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT)

NCRA has set up a unique facility for radio astronomical research using the metrewavelengths range of the

radio spectrum The radio spectrum is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum with frequencies from 0 Hz to 3,000 GHz (3 THz). Electromagnetic waves in this frequency range, called radio waves, are widely used in modern technology, particul ...

, known as the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), it is located at a site about 80 km north of Pune. GMRT consists of 30 fully steerable gigantic parabolic dishes of 45m diameter each spread over distances of up to 25 km. GMRT is one of the most challenging experimental programmes in basic sciences undertaken by Indian scientists and engineers. GMRT is a unique instrument which opens up the sky at the Metrewave range of the

Electromagnetic spectrum The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of frequencies (the spectrum) of electromagnetic radiation and their respective wavelengths and photon energies. The electromagnetic spectrum covers electromagnetic waves with frequencies ranging fro ...

and using the technique of

Aperture synthesis Aperture synthesis or synthesis imaging is a type of interferometry that mixes signals from a collection of telescopes to produce images having the same angular resolution as an instrument the size of the entire collection. At each separation and ...

allows to make high sensitive maps of the sky.Introducing GMRT
/ref> The instrument is at par with other radio telescopes in the world like the VLA in terms of resolution. It complements VLA at the metre-wavelengths.

Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT)

The Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT, as it is known) is a

cylindrical A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an in ...

paraboloid In geometry, a paraboloid is a quadric surface that has exactly one axis of symmetry and no center of symmetry. The term "paraboloid" is derived from parabola, which refers to a conic section that has a similar property of symmetry. Every plan ...

of reflecting surface, 530 m long and 30 m wide, placed on a hill whose slope of about 11 degree in the north-south direction which is the same as the latitude of the location of ORT. This makes it possible to track celestial objects for about 10 hours continuously from their rising in east to their setting in the west by simply rotating the antenna mechanically along its long axis. The telescope is operated at 326.5 MHz (a

of 0.92 m) with 15 MHz usable bandwidth. The large size of the telescope makes it highly sensitive. It has been designed and fabricated fully indigenously.Radio Astronomy Centre, Ooty
/ref>

Radio Physics Laboratory

Radio Physics Laboratory(RPL) is a joint initiative of National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA-TIFR) and Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). It has set up several radio antennas in the campus itself. These contain 3-metre and 4-metre radio antennas as well as the construction of a 15-metre antenna in progress. RPL conducts a variety of student training programs including two major annual all India programs - Radio Astronomy Winter School for College students (RAWSC) and Pulsar Observing for Students (POS).Radio Physics Laboratory
/ref>

Notable people

Notable People associated with NCRA : *

, An Internationally renowned

Radio Astronomer Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The first detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation coming ...

and

Emeritus Professor ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of the InstituteProf. Govind Swarup
/ref> * Rajaram Nityananda, former Director of the Institute * Vijay Kumar Kapahi, former Director of the Institute * Yashwant Gupta, radio astronomer and professor of astrophysics * Nissim Kanekar, astrophysicist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate

Visiting Students Research Programme

The Visiting Students Research Programme (VSRP) is a summer programme conducted annually during the summer season by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics.

References

External links

Official NCRA WebsiteNCRA Location
in

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

{{Authority control Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Research institutes in Pune Science and technology in Maharashtra Astronomy organizations Astrophysics institutes Radio telescopes Interferometric telescopes Astronomical observatories in India Savitribai Phule Pune University Organisations based in Pune Educational institutions in India with year of establishment missing