ASTROSAT-1

♤ Astrosat is India's first dedicated astronomy satellite and is scheduled to launch on board the PSLV in 2015.

♤ A large number of leading astronomy research institutions in India and abroad are jointly building various instruments for the satellite.

♤ Astrosat will be a proposal-driven general purpose observatory, with main scientific focus on:

o Simultaneous multi-wavelength monitoring of intensity variations in a broad range of cosmic sources

o Monitoring the X-ray sky for new transients

o Sky surveys in the hard X-ray and UV bands

o Broadband spectroscopic studies of X-ray binaries, AGN, SNRs, clusters of galaxies and stellar coronae

o Studies of periodic and non-periodic variability of X-ray sources

♤ In particular, the mission will train its instruments at active galactic nuclei at the core of the Milky Way that is believed to have a super massive black hole.