
A senior astrophysicist said that after India’s solar mission ended, Aditya L1 began its journey to Lagrange 1 point after a key operation and it has begun studying high-energy particles in the solar wind from space. And will continue to do so for the rest of my life. The study of the solar wind, the continuous flow of charged particles from the sun that permeates the solar system, will be conducted with the help of an instrument called the Supra Thermal and Energetic Particle Spectrometer (STEPS), which is part of the Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX) payload.
“STEPS is working in space now. However, it was not idle before. Since Adiya was 52,000 kilometers above the Earth on September 10, it has been functioning within the Earth’s magnetic field,” Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) said Dr. Dibyendu Chakrabarty, Professor of Space and Atmospheric Sciences.
STEPS was developed by PRL with support from the Space Applications Center (SAC), Ahmedabad.
“During the four-month journey (until Aditya L1 reaches its destination), it will study high-energy particles in the solar wind. This data will help maintain the health and performance of our space assets in a better way.” Check Dr Krabati told PTI.
He said the main goal of STEPS is to study the high-energy particle environment from the spacecraft’s position at the L1 point through operations. “In the long term, STEPS data will also help us understand how space weather changes,” the space scientist said.
STEPS includes six sensors, each looking in a different direction and measuring epithermal and high-energy ions. Data collected in Earth orbit helps scientists analyze the behavior of particles around the Earth, especially in the presence of a magnetic field.
Aditya-L1, launched by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on September 2, will fly to the first Lagrange point about 1.5 million kilometers from the earth on September 18. ISRO said on X: “Flying to the sun and the earth Point L1! The Trans-Lagrangian Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) maneuver has been successfully performed. The spacecraft is now on an orbit that will bring it to the Sun-Earth point L1.” A Lagrangian point is the gravitational force acting between two objects Where they balance each other, the spacecraft can “hover” for longer periods of time.
Point L1 is considered the most important Lagrangian point in solar observations and was discovered by mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange.
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