NEW DELHI: After India’s successful moon landing last week, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), India’s central space agency, confirmed the launch of its upcoming mission to study the sun, called Aditya-L1, on 2 September. The launch will take place from Isro’s Sriharikota launch base at a scheduled time of 11:50 AM, aboard Isro’s most-used launch rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)’s C57 mission.
Aditya-L1 is India’s first mission to study the sun, and will seek to study solar characteristics and their impact on earth and the overall space weather, from a vantage point. The observatory will carry a total of seven payloads, and will be deployed at Lagrange Point-1 (L1)—one of three strategic points in space between the earth and the sun. While Isro has not disclosed an official figure, various reports have claimed that the total budget of the Aditya-L1 mission is under ₹400 crore, or less than $45 million.
The primary objectives of the Aditya-L1 mission would be to study the upper atmospheric conditions of the sun, including observing heating in the sun’s corona—the outermost layer of the solar atmosphere. Studies will also seek to observe solar flares, as well as get a deeper understanding of the physics behind partially ionized plasma—also known as the fourth state of matter. Aditya-L1 will also seek to understand the sequence of solar conditions that lead to solar flares, which in turn could be crucial to predict particularly strong such flares.
To be sure, while this is Isro’s first space observatory directed at the sun, it isn’t India’s first space observatory. In September 2015, Isro’s AstroSat became India’s first space observatory and was scheduled to serve as India’s own space telescope for five years. The space telescope remains active to date.
The study of solar flares has been globally regarded as crucial to understanding how changes in conditions on the sun may affect life on earth. While solar flares may not directly lead to death, strong solar radiations can cause blackout of satellite and radio communications on earth—leading to potentially significant disruption of global communications infrastructure. The most recent such incident took place on 7 August, leading to the disruption of radio and navigation signals across the North American continent….Read More
Source By: livemint
