New Delhi: ISRO launched a rocket on Saturday to study the sun in India’s first solar mission, Aditya-L1.
The launch followed India’s historic moon landing late last month when the country became the first to land on the south pole of the moon.
The Aditya-L1 spacecraft is designed to travel about 1.5 million kilometres over four months to a point in space called a Lagrange Point, where objects tend to stay put because of balancing gravitational forces.
The mission will study solar winds, which can cause disturbances on Earth, such as auroras.
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“The Aditya-L1 mission has the capacity to make a ‘big bang in terms of science,'” said Somak Raychaudhury, who was involved in the development of some components of the observatory.
He added, “Energy particles emitted by the sun can hit satellites that control communications on Earth. There have been episodes when major communications have gone down because a satellite has been hit by a big corona emission.”
Scientists hope to learn more about the effect of solar radiation on the thousands of satellites in orbit, a number that is growing with the success of ventures like Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink communications network.
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The Aditya-L1 launch was watched by nearly 500,000 viewers on the ISRO website, while thousands gathered at a viewing gallery near the launch site.
The rocket left a trail of smoke and fire as scientists clapped in celebration.
The Aditya-L1 mission is a major milestone for India’s space program, which has made significant progress in recent years.
The country’s Chandrayaan-3 mission, which landed on the moon’s south pole, was a major success, and the Aditya-L1 mission is expected to further advance India’s understanding of the sun.