Mission Sun: India’s Maiden Solar Mission ‘Aditya L1’ to reach Final orbit today

January 6, 2024

New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will place the country’s first space mission to study Sun ‘Aditya L1’  in its final destination orbit.

 The Final destination also known as L1 point is about 15 lakh kilometers away from the Earth and the Aditya L1 will be placed in the orbit today at 4 pm.

 According to ISRO officials, the spacecraft will reach a halo orbit around the ‘Lagrange Point 1’ (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, about 15 lakh kilometers from Earth. The ‘L1 point’ is about one percent of the total distance between the Earth and the Sun. He said that the Sun can be seen continuously from the satellite without any interference of the eclipses.

 He said this would provide greater benefits in observing solar activities and its impact on space weather in real time.

What is Lagrange Point?

Lagrange Point or L1 point where Aditya 1 will be placed is   the region where gravity between the Earth and the Sun becomes inactive. The halo orbit is a periodic, three-dimensional orbit near one of the L1, L2 or L3 ‘Lagrange points’. “At around 4 pm on Saturday, Aditya-L1 will be placed in a halo orbit around L1,” an ISRO official said on Friday.  

What will Aditya L1 do ?

‘Aditya L1’ is designed for remote observations of the solar system and to conduct actual observations of the solar wind at ‘L1’ (Sun-Earth Lagrangian point) about 15 lakh kilometers away from Earth. Officials said that the main objective of this mission is to study the dynamics in the solar atmosphere, the heat of the Sun’s corona, solar earthquakes or ‘coronal mass ejections’ (CMEs) on the Sun’s surface, solar flare-related activities and their characteristics and in the near-Earth space. To understand weather related problems.