Aditya-L1: What You Should Know about India's Solar Mission

Sep 02, 2023, 05:15 IST

Riya Teotia

Aim of Aditya-L1 mission

Aditya-L1 will be the first space-based observatory-class Indian solar mission to study the Sun.

What does L1 stand for in Aditya-L1?

The spacecraft will be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, which is about 1.5 million km from Earth. The mission got its name from this Lagrangian point 1.

Aditya-L1 launch date

The mission is scheduled to be launched on September 2 at 11:50 am aboard a PSLV-C57. 

Major objectives of Aditya-L1 mission

The mission aims to unravel the dynamics and origins of coronal mass ejections, significantly contributing to our understanding of the Sun's behaviour and its influence on Earth's environment.

What does Aditya-L1 consist of?

Aditya-L1 consists of a total of seven payloads on-board with four of them carrying out remote sensing of the Sun and three of them carrying in-situ observations.

Is Aditya-L1 a complete mission to study the Sun?

The answer is no. Due to the limited mass, power and volume of the spacecraft that carries the payloads, only a limited set of instruments can be sent on-board to study the Sun.

Why study the Sun?

As per ISRO, by studying the Sun we can learn much more about the stars in our Milky Way as well as about stars in various other galaxies. 

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