What is Aditya-L1 mission? Discuss its objectives and importance.
Aditya-L1 is the India’s first dedicated scientific mission, which aims to send a satellite to study the dynamics of sun’s chromosphere. The mission is a joint venture between ISRO and physicists from various institutes including Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru; Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune; and TataInstitute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.
Objectives
- The objective of the mission is to study the dynamic nature of the sun’s outer most layers, the corona and the chromosphere, and collect data about Coronal Mass Ejections (CME).
- It will also study on origin of solar storms and their path through the interplanetary space from the Sun to the Earth.
- The studies will also focus on collection of information for space weather prediction.
Significance
This mission will present clear picture of sun’s chromosphere, which in turn will help us to understand the concept of sun’s corona visible during solar eclipse. Furthermore, it will help to study the discharging of charged particles into space which affect the environment there called solar wind. Solar winds are responsible for damage to satellites and affect the upper atmosphere, but Van Allen belt protects earth’s atmosphere from getting affected by solar winds.