Just a week after Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the moon, India's space agency has already launched a rocket carrying Aditya-L1, its first mission dedicated to observing the sun..
, the country's space agency has already launched a rocket carrying Aditya-L1, the first Indian mission dedicated to observing the sun.
Aditya-L1 will travel 930,000 miles over four months until it reaches the L1 Lagrange Point between the sun and our planet. A Lagrange point is a place of equilibrium between two massive orbiting bodies where objects tend to stay put, thereby minimizing a spacecraft's fuel consumption. The spacecraft will remain in orbit to collect data that scientists are hoping would help them figure out why the sun's corona is hotter than its surface.
They're also hoping that the mission could provide information on how solar radiation and various solar phenomena affect communication systems and satellites, as well as power grids. By understanding those effects, space companies and agencies can better protect satellites in orbit. If scientistscoronal mass ejections, for instance, they can alert operators so that they can shut down their satellites' power before the phenomenon occurs.
Sankar Subramanian, principal scientist of the mission, said:"We have made sure we will have a unique data set that is not currently available from any other mission. This will allow us to understand the sun, its dynamics as well as the inner heliosphere, which is an important element for current-day technology, as well as space-weather aspects."Great deals on consumer electronics delivered straight to your inbox, curated by Engadget’s editorial team.
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