Blog

New Delhi: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is preparing for its next mission after Chandrayaan-3. Aditya L1 will be the first space based Indian mission to study the Sun and the spacecraft will be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagarange Point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth.  

ISRO launched its Chandrayaan -3 mission last month on July 14, aiming at the soft landing of its rover on the South side of the Moon. The spacecraft has reached the Moon’s orbit so far and is expected to launch the lander for descending around August 20 and that will be touched the ground on August 23.

Here are 5 key things to know about ISRO’s upcoming Sun mission:

1. The mission will observe the solar activities and its effect on space weather in real time.

2. A satellite placed in the halo orbit around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses (An eclipse is like a big shadow that happens when one thing in space moves in front of another. It’s like when the moon moves in between the Earth and the Sun, blocking the sunlight for a little while).

3. The spacecraft carries seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic and particle and magnetic field detectors.

4. Using the special vantage point L1, four payloads directly view the Sun and the remaining three payloads carry out in-situ studies of particles and fields at the Lagrange point L1, thus providing important scientific studies of the propagatory effect of solar dynamics in the interplanetary medium

5. The suits of Aditya L1 payloads are expected to provide most crucial informations to understand the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities and their characteristics, dynamics of space weather, propagation of particle and fields etc.