Aditya-L1 Captures Unprecedented Solar Flare Details

General Studies Paper -3

Context: Aditya-L1 has made a significant discovery by capturing the first-ever image of a solar flare ‘kernel’ in the lower solar atmosphere (photosphere and chromosphere).

Aditya-L1

• It was launched in September 2023, by ISRO’s PSLV C-57 rocket.
• It was placed in a halo orbit around the Earth-Sun Lagrange Point (L1) in January
• It is India’s first dedicated space-based solar mission.
• It stays approximately 1.5 million km away from Earth, directed towards the Sun, which is about 1% of the Earth-Sun distance.
• It would study the outer atmosphere of the Sun.
• It will neither land on the Sun nor approach the Sun any closer.

Scientific payloads

• The Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT): It captures high-resolution images in 11 different NUV bands, enabling the study of multiple solar layers.
• Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS), and High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS) monitor solar X-ray emissions to detect flare activity.

Importance

• A significant revelation is the correlation between localized brightening in the lower atmosphere and an increase in plasma temperature in the solar corona, validating long-standing theories about solar flare physics.

Do you know?

• “Aditya” means the Sun in Sanskrit, and “L1” refers to Lagrange Point 1 in the Sun-Earth system.
• L1 is a location in space where the gravitational forces of the Sun and Earth are in equilibrium, allowing objects placed there to remain stable relative to both celestial bodies.
• The L1 point allows the spacecraft to continuously observe solar activities without any eclipse or occultation.