After the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set for another challenge and its first solar mission Aditya-L1. The next space exploration mission is set for launch on September 2 at 11.50 am from Sriharikota spaceport to study the sun.
The Aditya-L1 will be placed in the Halo orbit of the Lagrangian Point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system.
What is Lagrangian point?
Lagrangian point is a place in the space where a small object can remain in equilibrium under the gravitational influence of two larger orbiting bodies. Here in this case, the two orbiting bodies will be Sun and Earth. There are five Lagrangian points in the space which have been defined as L1, L2, L3, L4 and L5.
What are L1 to L5 levels in terms of Lagrangian point in space?
There are five Lagrangian points for any pair of orbiting bodies, labeled L1 to L5.
The L1, L2, and L3 points lie on the line connecting the centers of the two large bodies, while the L4 and L5 points form the vertices of two equilateral triangles with the centers of the two large bodies.
The L1 point is located between the two large bodies, where the gravitational pull of both bodies is equal and opposite. And this will be the point where the Aditya L1 mission will be placed.
The L2 point is located beyond the smaller body, where the gravitational pull of the smaller body cancels out some of the pull of the larger body.
The L3 point is located behind the larger body, opposite to the smaller body.
The L4 and L5 points are located at 60 degrees ahead and behind the smaller body in its orbit around the larger body.
The stability of the Lagrangian points depends on the mass ratio of the two large bodies. The L4 and L5 points are stable if the mass ratio is greater than 24.96, which is satisfied for many pairs of bodies in the solar system, such as the Sun-Earth and Earth-Moon systems.
The L1, L2, and L3 points are unstable and require periodic corrections to maintain a stable orbit.
Why Lagrangian points are useful for space explorations?
Lagrangian points are useful for space exploration because they offer low-energy orbits and uninterrupted views of certain regions of space.
The L1 point of the Sun-Earth system allows a spacecraft to observe the Sun continuously, while the L2 point of the Sun-Earth system provides a clear view of deep space for telescopes.
The L4 and L5 points can also host trojan asteroids that share the orbit of a planet around the Sun.
What are the objectives of Aditya-L1 mission?
The Lagrangian point-L1 is at a distance of about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. The Aditya-L1 spacecraft is designed to provide remote observations of the solar corona and in-situ observations of the solar wind at L1 (Sun-Earth Lagrange point).
ISRO said in a social media post that the spacecraft would be launched using a PSLV-C57 rocket.
The Aditya-L1 mission would carry seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the corona -- the outermost layers of the Sun -- in different wavebands.
Aditya-L1 is a fully indigenous effort with the participation of national institutions, an ISRO official said.
Aditya-L1 can provide observations on the corona, and on the solar chromosphere using the UV payload and on the flares using the X-ray payloads.
The particle detectors and the magnetometer payload can provide information on charged particles and the magnetic field reaching the halo orbit around L1.
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