The world’s highest Gamma-Ray Telescope, MACE, situated at Hanle in Ladakh has detected a ‘blast from the past’, well before the Earth and/or the Solar System were even born. Scientists from the Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Mumbai part of the Department of Atomic Energy, have detected an explosion from a galaxy, of what is also called a Gamma Ray flare. They say it comes from a source eight billion light years away. The discovery, made on Republic Day this year, provides a new understanding of how the Universe is made. The MACE (Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment Telescope) has a diameter of 21 meters, weighs 180 tonnes and has 356 mirror panels. It is the largest telescope in Asia and the highest in the world. It’s armed with a high-resolution imaging camera that weighs about 1200 kg and is being used to study black holes and dark matter. Scientists estimate that the Earth was formed some 4.5 billion years ago. Extrapolating from this finding, scientists suggest that this intense flare is at least 3.5billion years older than even the time of the birth of the Earth.
