India ready for first solar mission

Aditya or Aditya L1 (Aditya – L1). Preparations for India’s world-wide solar mission are nearing completion. ISRO aims to launch Aditya by the end of 2022. The mission, scheduled for early 2020, was postponed in the wake of Covid. The satellite, which weighs 400 kg, will be carrying a payload called the Visible Emission Line Coronograph (VELC).

The plan is to study the Sun from a Lagrangian point between the Earth and the Sun. The L-1 point is unique in that it can see the sun all the time without interruption. That is why India’s solar mission is now known as Aditya-L1.

L-1 is 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. The mission will carry six payloads for detailed studies. The PSLV-XL rocket will bring Aditya closer to the Sun from Sriharikota.

Aditya’s main goal was to study the corona of the Sun. The temperature there is higher than the photosphere, the center of the sun. How it got to such a high temperature is still one of the unanswered questions.

Apart from this, Aditya also aims to observe the photosphere and chromosphere of the Sun. Aditya also has tools to study the particles that originate from the Sun and reach L-1. Among the payloads is a magnetic meter to measure the strength of the magnetic field in the vacuum orbit around L1.

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