2023-09-02 19:16:12
India has launched its first spacecraft dedicated to the study of the Sun. The Aditya-L1 probe, named following a Hindu deity representing the sun, took off from Sriharikota, an island off the Bay of Bengal, on Saturday at 11:50 a.m. local time (8:20 a.m. French time). It is heading towards the Lagrange 1 parking point, regarding 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, where the gravitational attraction of the two celestial objects cancels out. It will allow Aditya-L1 to remain in orbit, in an optimal position to observe solar activities and their effects on space weather in real time, while consuming little fuel.
The probe is equipped with seven scientific instruments, four of which will be pointed directly at the Sun, while the others will study the particles of the solar wind and the magnetic fields passing through the Lagrange point 1.
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The main objectives of the mission include the study of the upper atmosphere of the Sun and various solar phenomena, such as coronal mass ejections – or massive expulsions of plasma from the outermost layer of the Sun – which can disturb the functioning of satellites. The information collected by the Indian mission will provide a better understanding of space weather, in particular the magnetic waves that pass through our solar system.
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A new era
Data from Aditya-L1 will complement those provided by other missions, such as NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (traveling since 2018), which became the first spacecraft to “touch” the Sun.
The probe liftoff comes less than two weeks following India’s space agency, the Indian Space Research Organization, made history by landing its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the lunar surface. India thus became the fourth nation in the world, and the second in the 21st century, to land a vehicle safely on the Moon.
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From the Brics summit in South Africa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed his nation’s achievement: “This is the new India, a new beginning […] Today we are in space, we have proven to the world that we can do it. This is a historic moment, and every Indian is very proud of it… I want to congratulate the 1.4 billion citizens of our country. » If successful, the latest mission of India’s ambitious space program will mark the first placement in orbit around the Sun by an Asian nation.
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