India's first Sun mission Aditya L1 successfully injected into orbit

ISRO reached its destination on 6 January 2024, India's first Sun mission, Aditya-L1. Aditya-L1 is set to orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1 (L1) in a coronal orbit.

• Placing Aditya into a halo orbit around Lagrange Point 1 will be performed on January 6.

About Aditya-L1 Mission:

• Aditya-L1 was launched on 2 September 2023 by PSLV-C57.
• Aditya-L1 is the first space-based observatory-class Indian solar mission to study the Sun from a distance of 1.5 million km. It took approximately 125 days to reach the L1 point.
• Aditya-L1 is also ISRO's second astronomy observatory-class mission after Astrosat (2015).
• This orbit is also important because it enables the satellite to avoid eclipses. Here solar observations are made continuously without interference from the Earth's magnetic field.
• Aditya-L1 mission is for a duration of about 5 years.

Objective of Aditya-L1 Mission:

• The primary objective of this mission is to study the solar atmosphere, especially the chromosphere and corona. The aim is to gain insight into phenomena such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), solar flares and the mysterious heating of the solar corona.

About Lagrange Point 1 (L1):

• L1 is the place in space where the gravitational force of the Sun and the Earth is the same. That is, Lagrange points are those special places in space where the gravitational forces of two large revolving bodies like the Sun and the Earth balance each other.
• Here a spacecraft can remain at these points without using more fuel to maintain its orbit.
• There are a total of five Lagrange points, all of which have different characteristics. These points enable a smaller mass to orbit in a stable pattern between two larger masses.

Payloads associated with Aditya-L1 mission:

• A total of seven payloads have been deployed from this mission. 
• In this, four payloads will be able to clearly observe the Sun. 
• While the remaining three payloads will study the particles and fields in situ at this Lagrangian point.

Four remote sensing payloads:

1. Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC)
2. Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT)
3. Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (Solexs)
4. High Energy L1 Orbital X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS)

Three in-situ payloads:

1. Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX)
2. Plasma analyser package for Aditya (PAPA)
3. Advanced Tri-Axial High-Resolution Digital Magnetometer

These combined observations will study the mysteries behind solar dynamics and their effects on the interplanetary medium