BENGALURU – India maiden solar mission, Aditya-L1, has commenced its scientific operations, capturing its first high-energy data on solar flares just weeks after successfully reaching its destination orbit.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that the spacecraft Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS) instrument has recorded its initial data since being fully commissioned. The data captured is crucial to understanding the mechanisms behind solar flares intense bursts of radiation from the Sun and their impact on Earth.
Key Data and Observations
SoLEXS is designed to monitor the Sun X-ray emissions in the soft X-ray band (1-30 keV), which are a key indicator of solar activity.
● The instrument successfully captured data corresponding to a recent {M-class} solar flare, a significant event on the Sun’s surface.
● ISRO confirmed that the performance of the instrument, which began commissioning in late January, is nominal and meets all operational requirements.
● The data will allow scientists to analyze the thermal properties of the X-ray emitting plasma during flaring events, providing clues about how energy is released in the Sun’s atmosphere.
Aditya-L1 Mission Status
Aditya-L1 was launched in September and was successfully inserted into a Halo orbit around the Lagrange Point 1 L1 in early January. This position, about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, provides a clear, uninterrupted view of the Sun without being obscured by the Earth or the Moon.
Of the seven scientific payloads on board, SoLEXS is one of two X-ray spectrometers. The other, the High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer {HEL}1{OS), is currently undergoing commissioning.
The primary objectives of the overall mission are to study:
• The dynamics of the Sun’s outer atmosphere chromosphere and corona.
• The causes of the coronal heating problem (why the Sun’s corona is much hotter than its surface).
• The initiation of coronal mass ejections CMEs and solar flares, which affect space weather near Earth.
The mission is expected to continue collecting data for the next five years providing unprecedented insights into solar phenomena and aiding in better predictions of space weather.