ADITYA SETS OUT TO SHINE TORCH ON SUN

INDIA'S first space-based mission to study the Sun left its earthly orbit at 2 am on Tuesday. The Aditya-L1 craft started on a 110-day journey to Lagrange point 1 (L1), a location in space 1.5 million km away, where it will be placed in an orbit to gaze at the sun unobstructed. This point, a hundredth of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, is where the gravitational forces of the two celestial bodies balance out. This allows the satellite to remain in position with reduced fuel consumption.

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The scientific community is excited. The craft is carrying seven payloads to study the Sun's photosphere (surface), corona (outermost layers), and chromosphere (a thin layer between the photosphere and the corona) using electromagnetic, particle and magnetic field detectors. Using the special vantage of L1, four payloads will directly view the Sun, while the other three will conduct in situ studies of particles and fields near L1. These will relay important data on how the Sun affects its planets, and would help understand the corona and explosive bursts of plasma from it that cause intense geomagnetic