India in talks to be part of East Asian Observatories Consortium

News: India is in preliminary discussions to be a part of the East Asian Observatories Consortium.

Facts:

About East Asian Observatories Consortium

•  It is formed by EACOA (East Asian Core Observatories Association).
• At present, China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea are full members and Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia are ‘observers’,
•  It seeks to pursue joint projects in astronomy within the East Asian region

Additional Information

Event Horizon Telescope:

•  It is an international collaboration of eight different telescopes at different observatories around the world. It was launched in 2009.
• The first image of a black hole, at the center of galaxy Messier 87, was published by the EHT in 2019

Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT): It is a proposed astronomical observatory with an extremely large telescope (ELT). It is proposed to be built on Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano and the highest point in Hawaii.