The Aditya-L1 spacecraft has completed a 127-day journey to its final destination, poised to embark on five years of critical observations regarding the Sun. Positioned around 1.5 million km from Earth at Lagrange Point 1, this mission marks a significant milestone for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
S Somanath, ISRO’s chief, emphasized the global importance of understanding the Sun, highlighting that the findings from Aditya-L1 will hold significance not just for India but for the entire world. This mission’s primary aim is to gather crucial data on various aspects of the Sun, inaccessible from Earth or its immediate orbit.
The spacecraft, now settled into a Halo Orbit around L1, will examine how solar activity impacts particles and radiation, offering detailed insights into the Sun’s outer surface. Annapurni Subramaniam, director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, detailed the three phases of the craft’s journey: from Earth-bound orbit to the cruise phase and finally the insertion into the halo orbit. Now, the mission enters its operational phase, activating all science instruments on board.
The Indian Institute of Astrophysics designed the primary payload, the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC). Subramaniam expressed excitement about entering the performance evaluation phase, anticipating the commencement of data reception after initial tests.
Jagdev Singh, the mission’s principal investigator, projected that data collection from L1 would begin by mid-January. The seven payloads aboard the observatory aim to study various layers and phenomena of the Sun, encompassing the corona, chromosphere, photosphere, and solar wind.
Four payloads will directly observe the Sun (VELC, SUIT, SoLEXS, HEL1OS) from the advantageous L1 vantage point. Simultaneously, the remaining three payloads (ASPEX, PAPA, and Advanced Tri-axial High-Resolution Digital Magnetometers) will conduct in-situ studies of particles and fields at L1, offering valuable insights into solar dynamics’ effects.
Somanath stressed the mission’s potential in unraveling space weather’s nuances, a crucial factor for the global scientific community. Space weather, as outlined by NASA, impacts Earth and the solar system, posing risks to satellites and causing electrical disruptions.
Dibyendu Nandi, a professor of physics at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata, highlighted the threats posed by strong solar flares and CMEs, underlining the importance of understanding and monitoring space weather.
In essence, the Aditya-L1 mission stands poised to unlock significant insights into solar phenomena and their effects on space weather, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of our Sun’s dynamics.