Just days after making history by becoming the first country to land a craft near the Moon’s south pole, India has launched its first mission to observe the Sun.
Aditya-L1 lifted off from the launch pad at Sriharikota yesterday, and will spend the next four months travelling some 1.5 million km from the Earth – just 1% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
According to the BBC, India’s first space-based mission to study the solar system’s biggest object is named after Surya, the Hindu god of the Sun, also known as Aditya. The L1 stands for Lagrange point 1, the precise spot between Sun and Earth that the craft is heading to.
According to the European Space Agency, a Lagrange point is a spot where the gravitational forces of two large objects, such as the Sun and the Earth, cancel each other out, allowing a spacecraft to ‘hover’.
Once Aditya-L1 reaches this ‘parking spot’, it will be able to orbit the Sun at the same rate as the Earth. This also means the satellite will require very little fuel to operate.
From this position, it will be able to watch the Sun constantly and carry out scientific studies.
Project director Nigar Shaji said Aditya-L1’s observations would benefit the global scientific community.
The BBC reports that India has more than 50 satellites in space, providing services ranging from communication links to data on weather to help predict pest infestations, droughts and impending disasters.
According to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, some 10 290 satellites remain in the Earth’s orbit, nearly 7 800 of them currently operational.