Aditya L1, which is India’s first spacecraft built for comprehensive study of the Sun, captured breathtakingly cool pictures of Earth and Moon from space
The spacecraft is now heading for the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth
One of the specialties of the Sun-Earth L1 point is that it gives the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/ eclipse
The images of the Earth and Moon were shared by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on its social media handles
“Onlooker! Aditya-L1, destined for the Sun-Earth L1 point, takes a selfie and images of the Earth and the Moon,” it said in a post on X.
The pictures shared by Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency also show VELC (Visible Emission Line Coronagraph) and SUIT (Solar Ultraviolet Imager) instruments as seen by the camera on-board Aditya-L1 on September 4, 2023
The VELC is made for studying the solar corona and dynamics of Coronal Mass Ejections
SUIT would be used for imaging the Solar Photosphere and Chromosphere in near Ultra-violet (UV) and also for measuring the solar irradiance variations in near UV
The scientific objectives of Aditya-L1 mission includes study of coronal heating, solar wind acceleration, Coronal Mass Ejections (CME),dynamics of solar atmosphere and temperature anisotropy
Launched from Sriharikota on September 2, Aditya L1 carries a suit of seven scientific payloads to carry out systematic study of the Sun