Eighty kilometres from Pune city in Khodad village in Junnar taluka, the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT), one of the world’s few low radio frequency telescopes used in studying the universe, is getting an upgrade.

The facility, which attracts talent from across the world and India, has been the research base for leading astronomers over the years. The upgrade would make GMRT more attractive for astronomers to come to Khodad to pursue cutting edge research. “It will ensure that we are able to take GMRT to deeper, fainter and more exotic reaches of the universe by using the latest modern technology,” said Yashwant Gupta, chief scientist, National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), which is the academic centre for the GMRT.

In scientific parlance, the GMRT will be able to function almost continuously from 30 mhz to 1,500 mhz in frequency, increase bandwidth coverage up to 400 mhz (from 32 mhz), incorporate more sensitive receivers, have a revamped servo system and a modern control and monitor system. The upgrade may also give the GMRT a few years of lead time over competing telescopes. In Holland, the WSRT works in low frequency as well, but it is much smaller than the GMRT. Holland is also coming up with another low frequency telescope called the Lofar.

Several countries are pooling in their resources to build the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) which will work in a continuous range of very low to very high frequencies.

The SKA, which will come up either in South Africa or Australia, is still in the concept stage.

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