What’s Aditya L1 all about?

With the moon safely under its belt, India has now set sights on our solar system’s lone star.

Transcript

00:00We are travelling 1.5 million km over 4 months to cover 1% of the distance between the earth

00:23and the sun.

00:24Acero's new mission could help understand future climate changes on earth and, believe

00:28it or not, help track power cuts.

00:32First of its kind for India, the Aditya-L1 mission will study the sun from Lagrange Point

00:371, L1.

00:39But what are we hoping to find there?

00:42Now, this does get a little technical and Acero has tweeted a detailed list of what

00:46Aditya-L1's seven payloads are.

00:49But in simple terms, the craft will observe solar activities and what effects they have

00:54on space weather.

00:55It will study the sun's outermost layers, known as the photosphere and the chromosphere.

01:00And it will also study the local environment at L1, among other things.

01:04So, since we can't yet land a craft on the sun, why not study the star from earth itself?

01:11Well, the sun not only emits light and radiation of almost all wavelengths, but also energy

01:17particles and magnetic fields.

01:19The earth's atmosphere and its own magnetic field do a great job of blocking out many

01:25of these radiations, particles and fields.

01:28Since these never reach the surface of the earth, we can't really study them from here.

01:33So, why not land a spacecraft just outside the earth's atmosphere and not 1.5 million

01:39kilometers away?

01:40There are two reasons for this.

01:42The first is that the craft will have to be far enough away from our planet so that the

01:46earth's magnetic field doesn't influence its readings.

01:49And the second is fuel.

01:51That's where the Lagrange points come in.

01:54These are points in space where if you send an object there, it will tend to stay put

01:58without using much fuel.

02:00The gravitational pull of two large masses, in this case the earth and the sun, becomes

02:05equal to the force needed for our spacecraft to move with them.

02:10There are five such points named L1 through L5.

02:13L1 is where Aditya is headed.

02:15It is the only Lagrange point between the earth and the sun, but it covers only about

02:201% of the distance between the two bodies.

02:22It will have a clear and uninterrupted view of the sun so that it can continuously observe

02:28the solar activities.

02:29L2, which is behind the earth away from the sun, is where NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

02:35lives.

02:36You might have seen some of these photographs taken by it.

02:39L3 has little use for humans so far since it's tucked away behind the sun.

02:44While this might be the first solar probe for India, several other countries have already

02:49sent missions to study the sun.

02:51These include several missions by the US, countries in Europe, Japan and even China.