Sunshine moment

Ten days after Chandrayaan 3’s lander successfully touched down in the Moon’s southern pole region, India reached another landmark when the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, mandated to study the Sun, was placed on an interme-diate orbit, or low earth orbit, on Saturday afternoon. Suitably named after the Sun God in Hindu mythology, Ad-itya-L1 thus began a 125-day journey, India’s first observation mission, in order to travel about 1.5 million km to its intended slot to study the Sun. L1 stands for Lagrange Point 1, the exact place between the sun and Earth where the Indian spacecraft is heading. Scientifically speaking, a Lagrange point is a spot where the gravitational forces of two large objects, such as the sun and the earth, cancel each other out, allowing a spacecraft to “hover”. Once it reaches this “parking spot”, Aditya-L1 will be able to orbit the sun at the same rate as the Earth. This also means that it will require very little fuel to operate. From this vantage point, Aditya-L1 will be able to watch the sun constantly, even during an eclipse, and carry out scientific studies as scheduled. According to ISRO, the Aditya-L1 orbiter carries seven scientific instruments that will observe and study the solar corona (the outermost layer), the photosphere (the sun’s surface or the part that is visible from the Earth), and the chromosphere (a thin layer of plasma that lies between the photosphere and the corona). Reports sent by Aditya-L1 will help scientists un-derstand solar activity, including solar wind and solar flares, and their effect on Earth and near-space weather in real time. According to scientists, the sun has a constant influence on the earth’s weather through radiation, heat, the flow of particles, and magnetic fields. It also has a huge impact on space weather. The effective function of satellites, on the other hand, is heavily dependent on space weather. Solar winds or storms in particular can affect the electronics on satellites and can even knock down power grids. Since there are a lot of gaps in mankind’s knowledge of space weather, Aditya-L1 is expected to contribute immensely towards bridging this gap, scientists at ISRO have said. Data received from Aditya-L1 could help in better understanding the sun’s impact on earth’s climate patterns and the origins of solar wind, the stream of particles that flow from the sun through the solar system. With two successful space missions, India has really made an early mark in the Amrit Kaal, by the end of which the country will also be recognized as a developed nation.