ADITYA L1 MISSION (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Sci & Tech)

Context: Recently, Aditya-L1 has successfully performed its first Earth-bound manoeuvre, indicating it is healthy and “performing optimally”.

• India’s first solar mission embarked on a 125-day journey before it is placed in a halo orbit about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth.

Aditya L1

• Aditya L1 represents India's inaugural space mission dedicated to the study of the Sun.
• Launched by: PSLV-XL launch vehicle.
• The spacecraft is destined to be positioned in a halo orbit encircling Lagrange point 1 (L1) within the Sun-Earth system, located approximately 1.5 million kms away from Earth.
• This continuous observation capability will significantly enhance the capacity to monitor solar activities and their immediate impact on space weather in real-time.
• Aditya L1 carries a total of seven payloads, which are designed to scrutinize the photosphere, chromosphere, and the outermost solar layers (the corona) using various detectors for electromagnetic waves, particles, and magnetic fields.
• Objective: To unravel the fundamental drivers of space weather, which encompass the origin, composition, and dynamics of the solar wind. 

Lagrangian Points

• About: These are particular points in space where the gravitational forces between two massive objects, like a planet and its moon or a planet and the Sun, create areas of heightened gravitational stability/equilibrium.
• Found by: Joseph Louis Lagrange.
• Located: About 1.5 million kilometres inside Earth's orbit, between the Sun and the Earth.