Days after becoming the first nation to land a craft near the Moon’s largely unexplored south pole, India’s space agency said on Monday it will launch a satellite to survey the Sun.
“The launch of Aditya-L1, the first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun, is scheduled for September 2,” the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Aditya, meaning “sun” in Hindi, will be fired into a halo orbit in a region of space about 1.5 million kilometres (930,000 miles) from Earth, providing the craft with a continuous clear view of the Sun.
“This will provide a greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather in real-time,” ISRO said. The spacecraft will be carrying seven payloads to observe the Sun’s outermost layers — known as the photosphere and chromosphere — including by using electromagnetic and particle field detectors.—AFP
