Aditya-L1 solar mission: India today launched its first mission to the Sun this morning, just days after becoming the first country in history to achieve a soft landing on the Moon’s south pole
AMN / WEB DESK
India today launched its first observation mission to the Sun, just days after the country scripted history by becoming the first to land near the Moon’s south pole.
Aditya-L1 blasted off from the launch pad at Sriharikota on Saturday at 11:50 am.
It will be located at a distance of 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth – 1 per cent of the Earth-Sun distance.
India’s space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), says it will take 125 days to travel the distance.
What is Aditya-L1 mission?
Aditya’sL1 mission is to study the solar winds and the Sun’s atmosphere. It will carry seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun namely the Corona. This will help understand the problems of coronal heating. Coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities, dynamics of weather and the study of the propagation of particles and fields in the interplanetary medium. Lagrange points are named in honor of Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange. Of the five Lagrange points, three are unstable and two are stable.
The unstable Lagrange points – labeled L1, L2 and L3 – lie along the line connecting the two large masses. The Indian Space Research Organisation will be on par with NASA, the European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Chinese Academy of Sciences which have launched Solar observation missions.
According to Isro, the orbiter will carry seven scientific instruments to study and observe the solar corona (the outermost layer), the photosphere (the Sun’s surface or the part visible from Earth), and the chromosphere (a thin layer of plasma between the photosphere and the corona).
The research will aid scientists in understanding solar activity, such as solar wind and solar flares, and their real-time effects on Earth and near-space weather.
Mylswamy Annadurai, a former Isro scientist, told the BBC that the Sun constantly influences Earth’s weather through radiation, heat, and the passage of particles and magnetic fields. At the same time, he claims, it has an effect on space weather.
“Space weather plays a role in how effectively the satellites function. Solar winds or storms can affect the electronics on satellites and even knock down power grids. But there are gaps in our knowledge of space weather,” Annadurai said.
