FAQ

Daksha is a proposed space mission: two satellites that will watch almost the whole sky for sudden flashes of X-rays and gamma rays from cosmic explosions, and alert astronomers around the world within about a minute.

Daksha (दक्ष) means “alert” in Marathi and Sanskrit. It can also mean able or skilful. Both fit a mission that is always watching, and quick to raise the alarm.

They are forms of light, like the visible light our eyes see, but carrying far more energy. X-rays are the same kind of light doctors use to see bones; gamma rays carry even more energy. In space, they come from the hottest, most violent places in the Universe.

No. The Earth’s atmosphere absorbs X-rays and gamma rays from space long before they reach the ground. That protects us — and it is exactly why telescopes like Daksha have to be in space.

The most powerful kind of explosion known: a flash of gamma rays lasting from a fraction of a second to a few minutes, produced when a massive star collapses or two neutron stars collide. Read more on our gamma-ray bursts page.

Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time, produced when massive objects such as neutron stars or black holes orbit and collide. Detectors such as LIGO can sense them, but cannot pinpoint where in the sky they came from. When neutron stars collide, they can also give off a flash of gamma rays — and Daksha is designed to catch these flashes, telling other telescopes where and when to look. See our gravitational-wave counterparts page.

From low orbit, the Earth blocks a large part of each satellite’s view, and satellites must switch off their detectors while passing through a region of intense radiation over the South Atlantic. With two satellites on opposite sides of the Earth, each covers what the other misses, so together they see far more of the sky, far more of the time.

Not in the usual sense. Its detectors count X-rays and gamma rays and measure their energies very precisely, rather than forming images. Daksha works out where a burst came from by comparing how brightly it lights up detectors facing different directions.

Within about a minute. Software on board spots each burst, works out roughly where it came from, and sends a short alert to the ground, where it is shared publicly with astronomers worldwide.

No. Four of its detector packages always face the Sun, to study solar flares. It can even detect terrestrial gamma-ray flashes: bursts of gamma rays produced high above thunderstorms here on Earth.

Daksha is a proposed mission. The satellites have been designed in detail, and laboratory models of the key detector hardware have been built and successfully demonstrated. Once the mission is fully funded, the team expects it to take about three years to build and launch.

Daksha is led by IIT Bombay, working closely with several partner institutes across India, with researchers from around the world on its science team. See our Institutes page.

Start by building your own paper Daksha! University students with an interest in astronomy can look at our research projects, which use simulated Daksha data, and at the material from our past workshops. You are also welcome to write to the team at varunb [at] iitb.ac.in.

Please fill in our short support form — it takes about a minute, and every response helps show that the scientific community wants to see Daksha fly. You can also follow us on social media and share our work.