Aditya-L1 Set To Launch On September 2, But What Is ISRO’s Sun Mission About?

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced that the Aditya-L1 mission, the country's first space-based observatory to study the Sun, would launch from Sriharikota on September 2.

The spacecraft will be placed in a halo orbit around the L1 or the Lagrange point 1 of the Sun-Earth system, which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth.

L1 is basically the point where the gravitational attraction and repulsion between two celestial bodies is such that an object placed between them, stays in the same relative position while moving with them.

According to NASA, “The L1 point of the Earth-Sun system affords an uninterrupted view of the Sun and is currently home to the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Satellite SOHO.”

Aditya L1 will carry seven payloads, including electromagnetic and particle field detectors, to examine the sun's outermost regions, known as the photosphere and chromosphere.

NASA and the European Space Agency have previously launched probes into orbit to study the sun, but this would be India's first.