Aditya-L1 Solar Mission of ISRO Starts Gathering Data in Earth’s Orbit

The first solar observatory in India has sensors on board that have started monitoring ions and electrons at a distance of more than 50,000 kilometres from Earth

According to ISRO, India’s Aditya-L1 solar mission satellite has started gathering data to aid scientists in studying the particles around Earth.

According to a post on X by ISRO, the sensors on board India’s first solar observatory have started monitoring ions and electrons at distances greater than 50,000 kilometres from Earth.

The Supra Thermal & Energetic Particle Spectrometer instrument’s sensors, according to the national space agency, started monitoring supra-thermal and energetic ions and electrons at a distance of more than 50,000 kilometres from Earth.

The device is a component of Aditya L1’s Aditya Solar Wind Particle EXperiment (ASPEX) payload.

Six sensors make up STEPS, each of which observes in a different direction and measures suprathermal and energetic ions with energies ranging from 20 keV/nucleon to 5 MeV/nucleon as well as electrons with energies more than 1 MeV. Particle spectrometers with low and high energies are used to make these observations.

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On September 10, STEPS was turned on at a distance of more than 50,000 km from Earth. This distance, which is well outside the radiation belt zone of the Earth, is equivalent to more than eight times the radius of the planet.

Scientists can investigate the behaviour of particles that surround the Earth, especially when the magnetic field of the planet is present, thanks to data gathered during Earth’s orbits.

Data collection continued after the requisite instrument health checks were finished until the spacecraft had travelled more than 50,000 km from Earth.

As Aditya-L1 moves closer to the Sun-Earth L1 point during the cruise phase of the mission, these STEPS measurements will continue to be made. Once the spacecraft is in its appropriate orbit, they will continue.

Understanding the origin, acceleration, and anisotropy of solar wind and space weather phenomena might be possible with the help of data gathered around L1.

The Physical Research Laboratory created STEPS with assistance from the Ahmedabad-based Space Application Centre.

ISRO launched Aditya-L1 on September 2.

Seven separate payloads are carried by the spacecraft to investigate the Sun; four of them will measure solar light while the other three will monitor plasma and magnetic field properties in situ.

The Lagrangian Point 1 (L1), about 1.5 million kilometres away from the Earth in the direction of the Sun, will be the object of Aditya-L1’s halo orbit. It can observe the Sun continuously since it will spin around it at the same relative location.