Indian Space Research Organisation to Launch Aditya-L1 Solar Mission on 2nd September
ISRO has announced that India’s inaugural solar mission, Aditya-L1, will be launched on September 2 at 11.50 am from Sriharikota spaceport, following the triumph of the Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Moon.
The Aditya-L1 spacecraft is designed to provide remote observations of the solar corona and in situ observations of the solar wind at L1 (Sun-Earth Lagrange point), which is about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
Lagrange points are places in space where the gravitational forces of the Sun and Earth produce increased regions of attraction and repulsion. According to NASA, spacecraft can use these to reduce the fuel consumption needed to stay in place. Lagrange points are named after the Italian-French mathematician Josephy-Louis Lagrange.
The Bengaluru-based space agency said on social media that the spacecraft – India’s first space-based observatory to study the sun – was launched on a PSLV-C57 rocket.
The Aditya-L1 mission, which aims to study the Sun from L1 orbit, would carry seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and corona – the outermost layers of the Sun – in different wavebands.
Aditya-L1 is a completely indigenous venture with participation from national institutions, an ISRO official said.
The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) in Bengaluru is the lead institute in developing the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) payload, while the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune has developed the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) payload. for the task.
According to ISRO, VELC aims to collect data to solve how the temperature of the corona can rise to a temperature of about one million degrees, while the surface of the Sun itself remains slightly above 6000 degrees Celsius.
Aditya-L1 can produce observations of the corona and solar chromosphere using a UV payload and of flares using X-ray payloads. Particle detectors and the magnetometer payload can provide information on charged particles and the magnetic field reaching the halo orbit around L1.
Developed by the U R Rao Satellite Center, the satellite arrived at ISRO’s Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh earlier this month.
It is intended to be placed in a halo orbit around the L1 point of the Sun-Earth system.
ISRO pointed out that a satellite placed in a halo orbit around the L1 point has the great advantage of continuously seeing the Sun without planets obstructing the view or causing eclipses. “This provides a greater advantage for observing solar activity and its impact on space weather in real time,” it said.
Using the special viewpoint L1, four payloads would look directly at the Sun and the remaining three payloads would perform in situ studies of particles and fields at L1, providing important scientific studies of the propagation effects of solar dynamics. interplanetary medium.
“The suits of the Aditya L1 payloads are expected to provide key information for understanding the coronal heat problem, coronal mass ejection (CME), preflare and flare functions and their characteristics, space weather dynamics, particle and field propagation, etc.,” ISRO said.
The main scientific objectives of the Aditya-L1 mission are: Study of the dynamics of the Sun’s upper atmosphere (chromosphere and corona); the study of chromospheric and coronal heating, the physics of partially ionized plasma, the initiation of coronal mass ejections and flares; observe the in situ particle and plasma environment, which provides data for the study of particle dynamics in the Sun; and the physics of the solar corona and its heating mechanism.
In addition, the goal of the mission is to study the diagnostics of coronal and coronal loops plasma: temperature, speed and density; Development, dynamics and origins of CME; identify the sequence of processes occurring in multiple layers (chromosphere, core, and extended corona) that ultimately lead to solar flare events; magnetic field topology and magnetic field measurements in the solar corona; and drivers of space weather (solar wind origin, composition, and dynamics).
Aditya-L1’s instruments are tuned to observe the solar atmosphere, mainly the chromosphere and corona. In situ devices monitor the local environment at the L1 point.
