Lok Sabha Question No. 3355 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-08-09
Subject: Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Vincent H Pala

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.3355 TO BE ANSWERED ON 09.08.2021

## Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics

3355. SHRI VINCENT H. PALA:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) has created a light frame rate movie of growing black hole system;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the details of the study of black hole undertaken by the Institute for the last ten years and the outcome so far; and
- (d) the funds sanctioned and released for the Large Telescope Project?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF EDUCATION (SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)

- (a) & (b): The University Grants Commission (UGC) has informed that Mr. John Paice, a PhD student  at  the  Inter-University  Centre  for  Astronomy  &  Astrophysics  (IUCAA),  Pune,  India, jointly  with  University  of  Southampton,  UK  created  the  movie  in  2019  which  was  widely covered  by  the  media  in  India  and  all  over  the  world.  The  movie  can  be  found  at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V-sjuOzVVA
- (c):  The UGC has further informed that many aspects of black hole research are carried out at IUCAA  by  faculty,  students  and  other  researchers.  This  includes  theoretical  studies  of  the formation and growth of black holes, of both the stellar mass and supermassive varieties, and their effect on Space and Time and the nature of gravitational waves and the implications of the General theory of relativity.

For the last six years, IUCAA scientists have been studying the flow of matter onto black holes using  data  from  the  Indian  Space  Observatory  AstroSat  and  other  facilities.   In  their  recent study, IUCAA has identified some of these black holes to possess masses ranging between 2 to a few tens of times the mass of our sun.

IUCAA scientists  are  probing  environments  of  super-massive  black  holes  in  active  galactic nuclei using multi-wavelength observations with Indian space observatory AstroSat and other international missions. Main findings include (i) a truncated accretion disk around a 100 million solar  mass  black  hole  in  an  active  galaxy   using  AstroSat  observations,  (ii)  larger  sizes  of accretion  disks  around  supermassive  black  holes  than  predicted  from  theory  using  NASA's Swift  observatory,  (iii)  high  density  accretion  disk  around  supermassive  black  holes  using ESA's XMM-Newton observatory, (iv) accretion disks providing seed photons for generating Xray  emission  in  active  galaxies  using  AstroSat  observations  (v)  frequency  of  occurrence  of winds/outflows in active galaxies using XMM-Newton observations, etc.

Machine  Learning  and  Big  Data  methods  are  used  to  distinguish  astrophysical  signal  from detector  noise  in  gravitational  wave  detectors  for  detecting  binary  black  hole  mergers,  and IUCAA scientists have significantly increased the sensitivity of these discoveries.

(d): The Department of Science & Technology (DST) has informed that Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT)  project  is  a  large  telescope  project  sanctioned  under  the  Mega  Facilities  for  Basic Research scheme of DST as an extramural grant. India is participating in the construction of TMT through Cash and in-kind contributions. The project is funded and implemented jointly by DST and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). DST is the Lead Agency for the project. Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, IUCAA, Pune and Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Nainital are the three lead institutions from the country for implementation of TMT project. So far, DST has released Rs. 137.486 crore and Rs.108.85 crore have been released by DAE to IIA, Bengaluru for implementation of TMT project.

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