From 300 to 1,500 km per sec: ISRO's Aditya-L1 mission captures plasma shooting from sun in first-of-its-kind observation

ISRO's Aditya-L1 mission, which left to study the Sun on Sep 2, 2023, has captured a solar flare and a plasma ejecting from our massive star. Sharing the video of the moment on May 14, 2025, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) wrote, "Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) onboard Aditya-L1 Mission Observed Powerful Solar Flare and a First-of-Its-Kind Observation of Rare Plasma Ejection in Ultra-violet Light."

The event recorded by the Indian spacecraft depicts how dynamic the Sun is. In future, scientists would also be able to predict space weather events that can impact Earth.

Sharing a note on the occurrence, ISRO wrote, "On 31 Dec 2023, the Aditya-L1 mission witnessed the Sun unleashing an enormous solar flare (an X-class solar flare) that hurled a glowing plasma 'blob' off the sun."

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"We see the initial eruption and a plasma blob getting ejected from the flaring region and accelerated across the field of view of SUIT. We also see the accelerated part of the ejected loops in the subsequent frames."

"This is first time; such an eruption is caught in near-ultraviolet light, which offers scientists a new class of data sets to understand solar phenomena more deeply," it added.

Aditya-L1 mission captures plasma moving at blistering speed

ISRO further stated that the plasma blob was seen going "from a leisurely 300 kilometres per second" to a "blistering speed of 1,500 kilometres per second." The movement of the plasma blob was so fast that at this speed, one can circle the entire Earth in half a minute, the Indian space agency informed.

About India's Aditya-L1 mission

The Aditya-L1 mission was launched to study the solar atmosphere and the magnetic storms and how they impact Earth. The coronagraphy spacecraft is currently about 1.5 million km from Earth, orbiting in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) between the Earth and the Sun.

The mission was launched on Sep 2, 2023, and the spacecraft was inserted into the L1 point on January 6, 2024. In February 2024, Aditya-L1 observed a powerful solar flare from its vantage point, about 1.5 million kilometres away. However, the coronal ejection captured in December 2023 is the first time such an eruption has been caught in near-ultraviolet light.