After the successful launch of Chandrayaan-2, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to launch Aditya-L1, a solar mission, early next year. According to the space agency, the mission aims to explore the corona of the sun.
ISRO’s mission sun intends to study the corona, which comprises the outer layers of the sun. The corona extends into thousands of kilometres.
“How the corona gets heated to such high temperatures is still an unanswered question in solar physics,” read the information on the official website of ISRO about its impending solar mission.
“It is 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth. It will always look at the Sun and give analysis of the corona because it has a major impact on climate change,” K Sivan, Chairperson of ISRO had announced in a news conference last month. He added that ISRO plans to launch the mission in the first half of 2020.
Aditya-L1, with supplementary experiments, can offer observations of the sun’s photosphere, chromosphere, and corona. While the particle payloads are expected to study the particle flux emanating from the sun, the information further read.
These payloads have to be placed outside the interference from the Earth’s magnetic field and cannot be useful in the low earth orbit, the information added.
Aditya-L1 will be launched using the PSLV-XL vehicle from Sriharikota, and it will be placed at the Halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, which is 1.5 million km from the Earth.
Sivan, who is also the secretary of the Department of Space said the space agency plans to launch another interplanetary mission to Venus in the next 2-3 years.
Earlier today, India successfully launched its second moon mission, the Chandrayaan-2. The GSLV-MkIII, carrying the Chandrayaan-2, was launched at 2:43 PM from the second launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota. This launch makes India the fourth country in the world to land on the surface of the moon. Chandrayaan-2 is set to explore the unexplored territory on the southern pole of the moon.
