Observing the “celestial surya namaskar” that the flourishing Indian subcontinent performed would be a breathtaking sight. Quickly approaching its orbital home is the Aditya-L1 satellite, which will occupy the role of India’s principal solar observatory for the following five years. Around 4 p.m. on January 6, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) anticipates the satellite will reach its intended orbit.
The 126-day voyage that began on September 2, 2018, has finally come to a close as it has arrived at its “karambhoomi” or “land of action” following a circuitous route of 3.7 million kilometers. Isro has announced that Aditya is in excellent condition, and the stunning images of the Sun’s disk that it sent have ignited a rush of fresh scientific discoveries.
At a distance of roughly 1.5 million kilometers, Aditya seems to be in a halo-shaped orbit around the Earth. Our orbit will still be quite distant from the Sun even as it gets closer to Earth’s orbit because of the approximately 150 million kilometer gap between the two bodies.
The 1,475-kilogram Aditya-L1 spacecraft will explore our solar system from its final resting spot, Lagrangian Point-1, in an effort to uncover more information about the mysterious star.
We can learn more about space weather thanks to the uninterrupted line of sight to the Sun from the Indian solar observatory. Nigar Shaji, the Project Director of the Aditya-L1 spacecraft at Bengaluru’s U R Rao Satellite Center, has said that the spacecraft would be used for solar storm prediction and warning.
Every object in our solar system is vulnerable to solar storms, which are intense magnetic eruptions on the Sun ad the whole solar system.
As it keeps a close eye on the sun, Aditya-L1 can warn us of impending solar electro-magnetic impacts, protecting our electrical and communication networks from interference. India is obligated to shield its space assets—worth over ₹50,000 crores and including more than 50 operational satellites—from the sun’s radiation.Â
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully executed a soft landing near the Moon’s south pole on September 2, after which, on September 2, the first solar mission of India, Aditya-L1, was launched from Sriharikota’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
At 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, close to the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point (L1), the Aditya-L1 mission will investigate the solar wind in situ while doing faraway research of the solar corona.
Extreme bursts of radiation, known as solar flares, have the potential to harm or even destroy satellite hardware. After the severe storm has passed, the engineers will securely disable the spacecraft’s electronics.
Among these intelligent satellites, Aditya-L1 stands out. According to Ashoka University’s Professor Somak Raychaudhury, the solar system always keeps an eye on our nearest star to warn us when the Sun is about to lash out its wrath.
Prof. Durgesh Tripathi of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune believes that “the complex space telescope” gives scientists a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
