The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will launch Aditya-L1, the country’s first space-based solar observatory, on September 2. The spacecraft will launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota at 11:50 a.m. IST. Aditya-L1 is an important milestone for ISRO as it is India’s first dedicated mission to study the Sun.
The spacecraft will be positioned in a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth system’s Lagrange point 1 (L1), approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. This strategic posture will allow for uninterrupted observation of the Sun with no eclipses or occultations.
What is ISRO’s Aditya-L1 mission?
The Aditya-L1 mission’s goal is to deliver critical information about many aspects of solar activity and their impact on space weather. It will carry seven payloads that will observe the photosphere, chromosphere, and the Sun’s outermost layers, the corona, in various wavebands. Four of these payloads will directly observe the Sun, while the remaining three will conduct in-situ particle and field research at the L1 point.
Understanding the causes and composition of solar wind and space weather, researching the dynamics of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and viewing the solar disk are among the mission’s primary scientific objectives. These findings will aid scientists in understanding how CMEs and solar flares form.
The Aditya-L1 mission will also investigate several unresolved questions in solar physics, such as the heating of the Sun’s upper atmosphere and the effect of solar radiation on Earth’s atmospheric dynamics and global climate.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL) will carry out this mission’s launch. The spacecraft has arrived at Sriharikota and is ready to launch into space.
