India sends new space mission to observe sun

Aditya-L1 is scheduled for launch on Saturday, carrying scientific instruments to observe the sun’s outermost layers, blasting off at 11:50am (06:20 GMT) local time for its four-month journey, Aljazeera reported.

The mission aims to shed light on the dynamics of several solar phenomena by imaging and measuring particles in the sun’s upper atmosphere.

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the spacecraft is carrying “seven scientific payloads for a systematic study of the sun”, all of which were indigenously developed in collaborations between India’s space agency and scientific institutes.

The United States and the European Space Agency (ESA) have sent numerous probes to the center of the solar system, beginning with NASA’s Pioneer program in the 1960s.

But if the latest mission by the ISRO is successful, it will be the first probe by any Asian nation to be placed in solar orbit.

India became the first Asian nation to put a craft into orbit around Mars in 2014 and is slated to launch a three-day crewed mission into the Earth’s orbit by next year.

AMK/PR