Aditya L1's mission life is 5 years; 7 payloads to study Sun: All details

The Aditya L1 is located at a distance of roughly 1.5 million km from earth around the Lagrange Point 1 (L1) and will study the solar activities and its effect on space weather

The Indian Space Research Organisation or Isro's ambitious solar mission - Aditya-L1, reached its final destination, a halo-orbit around the Sun on Saturday.

Located at a distance of roughly 1.5 million km from Earth on the continuously moving Sun-Earth line around Lagrange Point 1 (L1), the solar observatory spacecraft will study solar activities and their effect on space weather. The Lagrange Points are a unique region between the Earth and Sun, where gravitational forces reach equilibrium.

"The scientific objectives of Aditya-L1 mission include the study of coronal heating, solar wind acceleration, Coronal Mass Ejections (CME),dynamics of the solar atmosphere and temperature anisotropy," the Isro explained. Launched on September 2 last year, the spacecraft, placed in its specific halo-orbit is expected to have a mission life of five years, according to the Isro.

Scientific payloads on Aditya L1 and their key roles during the mission:

Aditya L1 carries seven indigenously developed scientific payloads for the systematic study of the Sun, the Isro said.

1)Visible Emission Line Coronagraph: According to the space agency, the VELC is the prime payload designed as a reflective coronagraph with a multi-slit spectrograph. It will be used for corona/imaging, spectropolarimetry and spectroscopy, among other things. These pertain to the study of the absorption and emission of light and other radiation by matter.

2)Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope: The SUIT is a UV telescope designed to image the solar disk in the near ultraviolet wavelength range.

3)Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer: The SoLEXS payload is a soft X-ray spectrometer designed to measure the solar soft X-ray flux to study solar flare. A solar flare is understood as a localised emission of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun's atmosphere. Strong solar flares have the potential to damage the Earth's communication systems.

4)High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer: Contrary to the SoLEXS, the HEL1OS is a hard X-ray spectrometer designed to study solar flares in the high-energy X-rays.

5)Aditya Solar wind Particle EXperiment: ASPEX will work as a solar wind/particle analyser and features two subsystems - SWIS and STEPS. SWIS or 'Solar Wind Ion Spectrometer' is a low-energy spectrometer designed to measure the proton and alpha particles of the solar wind. Meanwhile, STEPS or 'Suprathermal and Energetic Particle Spectrometer' is a high-energy spectrometer designed to measure high-energy ions of the solar wind.

6)Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya: PAPA is another payload designed to understand solar winds and their composition and conduct mass analysis of solar wind ions.

7)The final payload Magnetometer or MAG will measure the low-intensity interplanetary magnetic field in space.