Indian Institute of Astrophysics to Make World’s Largest Solar Telescope

India is likely to begin construction of the world’s largest solar telescope on the foothills of the Himalayas at Hanle or Merak village near Pangong Lake in Ladakh to understand the fundamental processes taking place on the Sun by year-end. A 2-metre class, state-of-the-art National Large Solar Telescope (NLST), built by Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), will permit Indian scientists to carry out cutting edge research aimed to study Sun’s atmosphere. It’s expected that the project would complete by 2017 & the project has been planned with a budget of 300 crore rupees . This telescope would also help in filling the longitudinal gap between Europe and Japan. The telescope with its innovative design and backend instruments would also provide crucial information on nature of magnetic fields due to its unprecedented spatial resolution.