Indian researchers have made exciting discoveries about the Sun using the Aditya-L1 mission, which is India's first space-based solar observatory. This mission focuses on studying Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), which are massive bursts of solar materials and magnetic energy that shoot out from the Sun's outer layer. Their findings, published in a scientific journal, provide important insights about the Sun's atmosphere and how it affects space weather.
Launched on September 2, 2023, Aditya-L1 is positioned in a special orbit around a point in space called the first Sun-Earth Lagrange Point (L1), located about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
On July 16, 2024, researchers used a special instrument on the spacecraft, called the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), to observe a CME that occurred alongside a strong solar flare. This instrument helps scientists see the Sun's atmosphere in a specific green light, revealing temperatures that exceed a million degrees Celsius. During this CME event, scientists noticed "coronal dimming," which is when a certain area of the Sun's atmosphere became about 50 percent less bright due to the material being ejected. This dimming lasted for roughly six hours, providing valuable information about the Sun's behavior.
The CME also caused the temperature in the surrounding area to rise by about 30 percent, and it increased turbulence, or chaotic movement, in the plasma (the hot, charged gas around the Sun) at an impressive speed of nearly 25 km/s. This turbulence shows that the Sun was very active magnetically during this event.
Additionally, scientists measured that the ejected plasma was moving away from them, indicating it was influenced by the Sun's magnetic fields. Understanding how CMEs are deflected by these magnetic fields is important for predicting their paths as they travel through space, which can affect our planet and others in the solar system.
Overall, these findings underline the importance of the Aditya-L1 mission in helping us understand the Sun's atmosphere better—an area much hotter than the Sun's visible surface. These observations contribute significantly to our knowledge of solar activity and its broad impacts on the environment in space, marking a notable step forward in India's exploration of solar phenomena.
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