ISRO’s maiden solar mission, Aditya-L1, launched successfully

ISRO on Saturday launched the countrys ambitious Solar mission Aditya L1 eyeing history again after its successful lunar expedition Chandrayan 3 a few days ago As the 2340hour countdown concluded the 444metertall Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV soared majestically at the prefixed time of 1150 am from this spaceport located on the Eastern coast about 135 km from Chennai It will be PSLVs longest flight for about 63 minutesAccording to ISRO AdityaL1 is the first spacebased observatory to study the Sun The spacecraft after travelling about 15 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 Among others it will send pictures of the sun for scientific experimentsWATCH Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO launches Indias first solar mission AdityaL1 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota Andhra PradeshAditya L1 is carrying seven different payloads to have a detailed study of the Sun pictwittercomEo5bzQi5SOmdash ANI ANI September 2 2023According to scientists there are five Lagrangian points or parking areas between the Earth and the Sun where a small object tends to stay if put there The Lagrange Points are named after ItalianFrench mathematician JosephLouis Lagrange for his prizewinning paper Essai sur le Problegraveme des Trois Corps 1772 These points in space can be used by spacecraft to remain there with reduced fuel consumptionAt a Lagrange point the gravitational pull of the two large bodies the Sun and the Earth equals the necessary centripetal force required for a small object to move with them After the liftoff at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota the scientists would be involved in placing the spacecraft in Low Earth Orbit initially and later it will be more ellipticalThe spacecraft would be launched towards the Lagrange L1 point using onboard propulsion so that it exits the earths gravitational Sphere of Influence and cruises towards the L1 Later it would be injected into a large Halo Orbit around the L1 point near the Sun The total time from launch to reaching the L1 point would be about four months for the AdityaL1 Mission ISRO saidExplaining the reasons to study the Sun ISRO said it emits radiation in nearly all wavelengths along with various energetic particles and magnetic fields The atmosphere of the Earth as well as its magnetic field acts as a protective shield and blocks harmful wavelength radiations In order to detect such radiation solar studies are carried out from spaceThe major objectives of the mission include understanding the Coronal Heating and Solar Wind Acceleration the initiation of Coronal Mass Ejection CME nearearth space weather and the solar wind distributionThe AdityaL1 mission carries seven scientific payloads to carry out the study The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph VELC will study the solar corona and dynamics of CME VELC the primary payload will be sending 1440 images per day to the ground station for analysis on reaching the intended orbitIt is the largest and technically most challenging payload on AdityaL1The Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope would do imaging of the Solar photosphere and Chromosphere in near Ultraviolet and measure the solar irradiance variationsThe Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment ASPEX and Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya PAPA payloads will study the solar wind and energetic ions as well as the energy distribution The Solar Low Energy Xray Spectrometer and the High Energy L1 Orbiting Xray Spectrometer HEL1OS will study the Xray flares from the Sun over a wide Xray energy range The Magnetometer payload is capable of measuring interplanetary magnetic fields at the L1 point The payloads of AdityaL1 are indigenously developed with the close collaboration of various centres of ISRO