On Saturday morning, as India’s Aditya – L1 blasts off to the Sun, experts are now gearing up for the big mission ahead. To study the largest object in our solar system, this mission will be the first to probe into the Corona, the innermost part of the Sun.
Experts explained the moments before the launch about the key details and the historic expedition of what happens next after liftoff.
After the launch, Aditya-L1 starts a four-month journey to its ” parking spot” near the Sun. It will be traveling a total distance of 1.5 million km from Earth.
The primary objectives of the mission is to study the following:
Physics of Solar Corona and its Heating Mechanism
- Solar wind acceleration.
- Coupling and dynamics of the solar atmosphere
- Solar wind distribution and temperature anisotropy,
- Origin of Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) and flares
- Near-earth space weather
The Aditya- L1 mission is committed to offering an understanding of the Sun’s behavior and its interactions with the Earth and the space environment.
Annapurni Subramaniam, director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, said an instrument called Visible Line Emission Coronagraph(VELC) was placed on board the launch vehicle carrying Aditya- L1. She said this would provide an “unobstructed view of the Sun.”
Moreover, Subramaniam also stated, ” It will observe the Sun in the state of an eclipse all the time, and this will be the first mission, which will take a close look at the innermost part of the Sun, the Corona.”
Moreover, the spacecraft will be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point1( L1) of the Sun-Earth system, allowing continuous viewing of the Sun without any eclipses or obstructions.
Besides, Mayank N Vahia, a retired Tata Institute of Fundamental Research professor, told ANI that the last solar mission to the L1 point was launched five years before Aditya L1.
He added,” The mission will observe the Sun simultaneously in optical, UV, and X-rays.”
The launch vehicle will carry seven different payloads, offering a detailed study of the Sun. Four will observe the light from the Sun, while the other three will measure in-situ parameters of the plasma and magnetic fields.
