The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) ambitious solar exploration mission Aditya-L1 on Thursday sent pictures of Earth and Moon clicked as it heads to its destination Lagrangian point (L1) which is at 1.5 million kilometers away from the Earth.
The images were shared by ISRO on X with a selfie that was clicked by Aditya-L1. Headquartered out of Bengaluru, ISRO said, “Aditya-L1, destined for the Sun-Earth L1 point, takes a selfie and images of the Earth and the Moon.”
The images showed the Visible Emission Line Coronograph (VELC) and Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUIT) instruments as seen by the camera on Aditya-L2 on September 4, 2023. The mission had lifted off from Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota on September 2.
It may be noted that the spacecraft has completed two earth-bound orbital maneuvers and will perform two more before placing in the transfer orbit towards the L1 point. Aditya-L1 is expected to arrive at its intended orbit at L1 point after 125 days.
Some of the major objectives of the mission are to study the physics of solar corona and its heating mechanism, the solar wind acceleration, coupling and dynamics of the solar atmosphere, solar wind distribution, and temperature anisotropy, along with the origin of Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) and flares and near-earth space weather.
The solar probe will help ISRO to another major feat in less than a month following the national space agency’s successful Chandrayaan-3 mission with the Vikram Lander making a soft landing on the South Pole of the Moon in late August.
Meanwhile, India’s other ongoing projects are a human spaceflight program which aims to launch astronauts into orbit for the first time expectedly by 2025, said ISRO Chairman S Somanath.
