According to an old 2021 data, around 6,542 satellites are there in space, out of which 3,372 satellites are active and around 3,170 are inactive and adding to the already crowded space junk.
International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) is the country’s first and largest liquid-mirror telescope, as well as the largest in Asia. The unique telescope will monitor the sky for transitory or variable objects such as supernovae, gravitational lenses, space debris, and asteroids. The reflected light passes through a sophisticated multi-lens optical corrector that produces sharp images over a wide field of view. To protect its distortions from the wind, it is covered by a thin transparent film of mylar. Mercury is used as it is a reflective liquid and is spun so that the surface is curved into a parabolic shape which is ideal for focusing light. The Liquid Mirror telescope is a 4-metre-diameter rotating mirror made up of a thin film of liquid mercury to collect and focus light. The observatory has been developed by scientists from India, Belgium, and Canada. It will also hold the unique tag of being the maiden liquid-telescope globally to be designed exclusively for astronomical purposes. The International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) is the only liquid-mirror telescope operational anywhere in the world. The observatory is housed in the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital in Uttarakhand. The International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT), which is the largest in Asia, has been set up at the Devasthal Observatory.
It has now entered the commissioning phase and will start scientific observations sometime in October 2022. India’s first liquid-mirror telescope, which will observe asteroids, supernovae, space debris and all other celestial objects from an altitude of 2,450 metres in the Himalayas, has seen its first light.