Aditya-L1 mission launched successfully
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully launched the Aditya L1 mission on September 2, 2023 at 11:50 am IST from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India. This mission is India's first dedicated solar mission and will study the Sun's atmosphere including the chromosphere and corona. The spacecraft will travel approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth in 125 days and will then be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1, a stable location close to the Sun.
The Aditya L1 spacecraft is a 1.5 tonne satellite equipped with seven payloads. It will carry all the payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (corona). Of these, 4 payloads will keep an eye on the sun, the remaining 3 will study around the L-1 point.
Information about Aditya-L1 Mission :-
Aditya-L1 is a coronagraphy spacecraft to study the solar atmosphere, designed and developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and various other Indian research institutes. It will be placed in a halo orbit around the L1 Lagrange point between the Earth and the Sun at a distance of about 15 lakh km from the Earth where it will study the solar atmosphere, solar magnetic storms and their effect on the atmosphere around the Earth.
7 payloads of Aditya-L
There are a total of seven payloads on-board Aditya-L1. Of these, four are remote sensing payloads and three are in-situ payloads-
Remote sensing payloads
- Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC): Corona/Imaging and Spectroscopy
- Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT): Photosphere and chromosphere imaging – narrow and broad band
- Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS): Soft X-ray Spectrometer
- High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS): Hard X-ray spectrometer
In-situ payloads
- Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX)
- Plasma analyzer package for Aditya (PAPA)
- Advanced Tri-Axle High Resolution Digital Magnometers
The main science objectives of Aditya-L1 are:
- Study of solar upper atmospheric (chromosphere and corona) dynamics.
- Study of chromospheric and coronal heating, physics of partially ionized plasma, initiation of coronal mass ejections, and flares.
- Observe in-situ particle and plasma environments providing data for studies of particle dynamics from the Sun.
- Physics of the solar corona and its heating mechanism.
- Diagnosis of coronal and coronal loop plasma: temperature, velocity, and density.
Evolution, dynamics and origin of the CME. - Identify the sequence of processes occurring at multiple layers (chromosphere, base, and extended corona) that ultimately lead to solar eruption events.
- Magnetic field topology and magnetic field measurements in the solar corona.
Drivers for space weather (origin, composition and dynamics of the solar wind).