After successful Moon mission, ISRO aims for Sun

Bengaluru: After the successful moon lander venture, ISRO is now gearing up for the launch of a solar mission in a week's time, likely on September 2, to study the Sun. Aditya-L1 spacecraft is designed for providing remote observations of the solar corona and in situ observations of the solar wind at L1 (Sun-Earth Lagrangian point), which is about 1.5 million kilometres from the earth.

It will be the first dedicated Indian space mission for observations of the Sun to be launched by the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency. The Aditya-L1 mission, aimed at studying the Sun from an orbit around the L1, would carry seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun, the corona, in different wavebands.

Aditya-L1 is a fully indigenous effort with the participation of national institutions, an ISRO official said. The Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) is the lead institute for the development of Visible Emission Line Coronagraph payload. While Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, has developed the Solar Ultraviolet Imager payload for the mission.