A giant Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment (MACE) Gamma-ray telescope, which weighs about 180 tonnes, has undergone all the field trials successfully and is ready to be dispatched to Hanle site in the Ladakh region of Jammu & Kashmir on Saturday.
The telescope has been designed, developed and manufactured by Hyderabad-based Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) for Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (Barc), Mumbai.
When installed, according to an ECIL communique, it will be the second largest Gamma-ray telescope in the world and help the scientific community of the country enhance understanding in the fields of astrophysics, fundamental physics and particle acceleration mechanisms.
Similar telescopes set up in Namibia, Europe and the US have been developed by collaborative efforts of multiple institutions, where as, the present telescope has been designed and developed from concept stage to trial assembly stage by ECIL, with technology support from Barc, the public sector undertaking claimed.
