After 126 days, Aditya-L1 to reach final destination today

Aditya-L1, the country's first solar observatory, is set to reach its destination on Saturday evening, after completing a 126days long journey to Lagrange Point 1 (L1) about 1.5 million kilometres from us The craft has already covered the intended 1.5 million kilometres and the Indian Space Research Organisation will inject the satellite into a halo orbit around L1 on Saturday, Jagdev Singh, from Bengaluru's Indian Institute of Astrophysics, said.

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"Once it is injected into orbit, the satellite will become stable and will continue to move in its orbit, just like Earth moves around the Sun or the Moon moves around the Earth," Singh said.

The L1 point is a region 1.5 million km from Earth towards the Sun, where gravitational forces of celestial objects work in such a way that the spacecraft can be parked in what is known as a halo orbit-an oval that shifts on three axes.

"Ll is just a point, it is not a destination like the Earth or the Moon. The gravitation between the Earth and the Sun becomes zero at Ll... Depending on the dynamics of the moving bodies, Isro has calculated that at what position should the satellite be placed so that it continues to move in orbit around L1," Singh said.