Blog

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched India’s maiden solar mission, Aditya-L1, from the spaceport in Sriharikota.

Aditya-L1 is the first space-based observatory class to study the sun. It was fired using ISRO’s reliable Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) at 11.50 am.

The spacecraft, after travelling about 1.5 million km from the earth over 125 days, is expected to be placed in a Halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1, which is considered closest to the sun.

The major objectives of the mission include understanding coronal heating, solar wind acceleration, initiation of coronal mass ejection, near-earth space weather, and solar wind distribution.

The Aditya-L1 mission carries seven scientific payloads to carry out the study.

The sun expedition comes close on the heels of ISRO’s successful moon mission, Chandrayaan-3, which has been in the limelight since its successful landing on the moon on August 23.

Chandrayaan-3’s purpose is to enhance the understanding of the moon, especially the South Pole region. A case in point is the recent confirmation by the Pragyan rover about the presence of sulphur in the region.

ISRO, in a tweet said, Aditya-L1 will stay approximately 1.5 million km away from the earth, directed towards the sun, which is about 1% of the earth-sun distance.

<div class="tweet embed" contenteditable="false" id="1697603558861103467" data-id="1697603558861103467" data-url="https://twitter.com/isro/status/1697603558861103467" data-html="

Here is the brochure: https://t.co/5tC1c7MR0u

and a few quick facts:
🔸Aditya-L1 will stay approximately 1.5 million km away from Earth, directed towards the Sun, which is about 1% of the Earth-Sun distance.
🔸The Sun is a giant sphere of gas and Aditya-L1 would study the… pic.twitter.com/N9qhBzZMMW

&mdash; ISRO (@isro) September 1, 2023

” data-type=”tweet” align=”center”>