India's first solar mission Aditya L1 successfully launched

September 2, 2023 by News Desk

Following the success of India’s moon landing with the Chandrayaan-3, ISRO today launched Aditya-L1 mission to study the sun, reported NDTV.

India’s first solar probe aims to study solar winds, which can cause disturbance on earth commonly seen as auroras. The solar mission follows India beating Russia late last month to become the first country to land on the south pole of the moon.

The Aditya-L1 spacecraft is designed to travel about 1.5 million km (930,000 miles) over four months to a kind of parking lot in space where objects tend to stay put because of balancing gravitational forces, reducing fuel consumption for the spacecraft.

Aditya L1, lifted off successfully from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, Annapurni Subramaniam, director, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru, said the mission will be the first to probe into the innermost part of the Sun – Corona.

Speaking to ANI moments before the launch of the country’s maiden solar mission, Subramaniam said, “We have boarded the main instrument on board the launch vehicle carrying Aditya L1. It is the Visible Line Emission Coronagraph (VELC). It will enable an unobstructed view of the Sun.”

“It will observe the Sun in the state of an eclipse all the time. This will be the first mission, which will take a close look at the innermost part of the Sun, the Corona,” she added.