Just days after the successful lunar landing mission, India has declared the sun as its next exploration target.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has announced its plans to launch the country’s first-ever solar research mission in early September. According to the schedule, on September 2nd, ISRO will launch a rocket carrying the Aditya-L1 satellite into space from the primary spaceport in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The satellite will take approximately four months to reach its ideal position for observing the sun, located 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth, known as the L-1 point.
Aditya L-1 will carry seven instruments to study the sun’s atmosphere. Most notably, the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) will be tasked with collecting data on near-ultraviolet rays (wavelengths of 200 – 400 nm) emitted by the sun. The second instrument, VELC, will study the solar corona, capture optical images, and record the spectral data. The remaining five instruments will be responsible for collecting and analyzing X-rays and particles from the sun.
According to an ISRO spokesperson, Aditya-L1 is India’s first space-based solar research telescope and provides “an advantage for observing the sun without obstruction.”
The mission will also delve deeper into solar winds – a phenomenon with the potential to adversely impact Earth’s electrical systems. Solar winds are considered a cause of geomagnetic storms and are directly related to phenomena like the auroras on Earth and other planets. The influence of solar winds can disrupt communication, including GPS signals transmitted between satellites and ground devices.
Previously, in 2020, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Solar Orbiter for the purpose of solar research. A year later, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe officially began its mission to collect particles and electron field data emitted by the central star of the Solar System.
Space weather forecasting is a shared goal of many nations. Streams of charged particles from the sun are continually launched into space, colliding with Earth. These charged solar particles are known as solar wind. The most severe space weather occurs when the sun releases billions of tons of energy particles directly toward Earth at speeds of up to 3,000 km/s. Solar eruptions can result in intense geomagnetic storms and have negative effects on astronauts, satellites, spacecraft, and humans on Earth.