Aditya-L1: India’s historic mission to study the sun

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Subhayan Chakraborty
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Aditya-L1: India’s historic mission to study the sun

Aditya-L1: India’s historic mission to study the sun (Photo: Twitter)

Aditya-L1, ISRO’s latest creation with the mission to study the sun, may help unravel several mysteries of the universe. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)has been working on the satellite project and is now gearing up to launch Aditya-L1 into space on its mission to study the sun soon.

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ISRO explains its Aditya-L1 mission to study the Sun:

Aditya-L1 satellite will be placed into a halo orbit, which is 1.5 million km from the Earth during 2019-2020. Any satellite in the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system can view the Sun without any occultation/ eclipses, scientists say.

The satellite will be set off by PSLV-XL from the launching pad at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

Aditya-L1 will carry six payloads with enhanced science scope for a detailed study of the Sun.

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The mission was first conceived as Aditya-1, a 400kg class satellite carrying one payload - the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph - and was to be launched in an 800-km low earth orbit, ISRO said. ISRO had planned to use Aditya-1 to study only the solar corona.

Now, the Aditya-1 mission has been revised and renamed Aditya-L1 mission.

Scientists are trying to unravel why and what heats up corona to a temperature of over a million degree Kelvin, much higher than the solar disc temperature of around 6000K.

Hence, the revised Aditya-L1 is expected to provide observations of Sun's Photosphere (soft and hard X-ray), Chromosphere (UV) and corona (Visible and NIR).

Also, particle payloads will study the particle flux emanating from the Sun and reaching the L1 orbit, and the magnetometer payload will measure the variation in magnetic field strength at the halo orbit around L1.

(With inputs from agencies)

Corona NASA ISRO Aditya L-1 Indian Space Agency