NEW DELHI, Sept 7: India’s ambitious spacecraft mission, Aditya-L1, on Thursday sent pictures of the Earth and the Moon clicked as it heads to its destination Lagrangian point (L1) located 1.5 million km from the Earth.
The images were shared by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Twitter along with a selfie that Aditya-L1 had clicked.
“Aditya-L1, destined for the Sun-Earth L1 point, takes a selfie and images of the Earth and the Moon,” the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency said.
The images show VELC (Visible Emission Line Coronagraph) and SUIT (Solar Ultraviolet Imager) instruments as seen by the camera on-board Aditya-L1 on September 4, 2023. The mission lifted off from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on September 2.
The spacecraft has already completed two earth-bound orbital manoeuvres and will perform two more before placing in the transfer orbit towards the Lagrange point L1. Aditya-L1 is expected to arrive at the intended orbit at the L1 point after 125 days.
The major objectives of the mission include the study of 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, and origin of Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) and flares and near-earth space weather.
The solar probe is helping ISRO notch up its second feat in less than a month after the country beat others to the lunar south pole in late August.
India’s other ongoing projects include a human spaceflight program that aims to launch astronauts into orbit for the first time possibly by 2025, ISRO Chairman S Somanath had said.
(Manas Dasgupta)