India launched its first solar mission last September. On September 2, ISRO’s Aditya L1 spacecraft launched towards the Sun.
The spacecraft is still moving towards the Lagrange point. Meanwhile, it sent the first X-ray image of a solar flare.
Aditya L1 has the L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer. Through this, a phase of the explosion of the sun’s flame has been detected. These solar flares are created by explosions on the surface of the Sun. The flame emits primarily X-rays and ultraviolet light.
It is believed that solar flares are generated when magnetic energy stored in the Sun’s atmosphere is released. Aditya L1 made its first observation on October 29 for about 10 hours. A phase of this solar flare was detected then.
The mission is to understand the Sun and its effect on Earth’s climate. Aditya-L1 will reach the L1 point between the Sun and Earth and observe the Sun closely. Its distance from Earth will be 1.5 million kilometers. Scientists are expected to learn many unknown facts about the Sun as a result. ISRO can also obtain much unknown information about the Sun’s corona, photosphere and chromosphere.
