ISRO Announces Launch Date For Solar Mission 'Aditya-L1'

It will observe the solar corona from a remote location at the Sun-Earth Lagrange point…


ISRO has announced that its first solar mission, Aditya-L1, will be launched on September 2 at 11:50 a.m. from the Sriharikota Space Centre.

According to ISRO, Aditya-L1 will observe the solar corona from a remote location at the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L1, which is about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth.

A French mathematician who first studied them in the 18th century, Lagrange Points are points in space where the gravitational forces of two large bodies, such as the Sun and the Earth, balance out, creating a region of equilibrium that can be used by a spacecraft to reduce fuel consumption.

"A satellite placed in the halo orbit around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any eclipses. This will provide a greater advantage of observing solar activities and their effect on space weather in real-time," says ISRO.

India's first space-based observatory to research the Sun, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, will be launched using the PSLV-C57 rocket.

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