Aditya L1

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) reported that the Solar Wind Ion Spectrometer (SWIS), the second component of the Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX) within its inaugural solar mission, Aditya L1, has become operational.
• As per a statement issued by ISRO, the Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX) payload onboard India’s Aditya-L1 satellite is performing normally.
• ASPEX comprises two cutting-edge instruments – the Solar wind Ion Spectrometer (SWIS) and STEPS (SupraThermal and Energetic Particle Spectrometer).

ABOUT ADITYA L1

• ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C57) on September 2 had successfully launched the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, from the second launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
• Aditya-L1 is the first Indian space-based observatory to study the Sun from a halo orbit around first Sun-earth Lagrangian point (L1), which is located roughly 1.5 million km from Earth.
• Objectives
  • Study of Solar upper atmospheric (chromosphere and corona) dynamics.
  • Study of chromospheric and coronal heating, physics of the partially ionized plasma, initiation of the coronal mass ejections, and flares
  • Observe the in-situ particle and plasma environment providing data for the study of particle dynamics from the Sun.
  • Physics of solar corona and its heating mechanism.
  • Diagnostics of the coronal and coronal loops plasma: Temperature, velocity and density.
  • Development, dynamics and origin of CMEs etc.
• Payloads- There are total seven payloads on-board with four of them carrying out remote sensing of the Sun and three of them carrying in-situ observation.

Lagrange points

• They have been named after Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange.
• There are five Lagrange points, L1 to L5, between any two-celestial body system.
• At these positions, the gravitational pull of the celestial bodies equals the centripetal force, thus the forces acting on the third body cancel each other out.