Kargil conflict clouds highest observatory

BANGALORE, JUNE 18: The world's highest telescope at Hanle in Ladakh is not going to be ready in time. It is the latest casualty of the c...

BANGALORE, JUNE 18: The world’s highest telescope at Hanle in Ladakh is not going to be ready in time. It is the latest casualty of the conflict initiated by Pakistan in the Kargil sector of Jammu and kashmir which has been on for almost a month now.

The main highway leading up to this remote observatory has come under intense Pakistani shelling and has literally been closed since the middle of May to all civilian traffic. Hence, critical components can’t be transported to Hanle.

Thankfully, there is no danger to the Hanle site itself, where India has already put up a lot of infrastructure, as the ongoing conflict is still a few hundred kilometers away.

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A two-metre aperture telescope, capable of carrying out optical and infra red observations, was to be commissioned by October 1999 in the cold desert of Ladakh at a height of 4,467 meters. The promise of getting over 50 clear nights in a moisture-free atmosphere was only one of the aspects that made India opt for this remote location.

According toDavid Lambert, an astronomer at the Department of Astronomy, University of Texas, Austin: "It is really dark up there” as there is no habitation in its vicinity, making it a great site for optical observations, and at the same time it is cold and dry making it a great site for infra red observations.