Aditya L1 Mission Part - I

 

Aditya L1 Mission 

      On 2^nd September 2023, after success of chandrayan-3 mission, ISRO (Space Agency of India) has launched Aditya L1 mission from SDSC (Satish Dhawan Space Centre), which is India’s first space mission to study Sun.

        This article will be divided in to two parts.

                   In first part, we will discuss about the Sun, its layers, gravitational force,      centripetal force etc. to understand the further concepts.

        In next part we will discuss about the Lagrange points and the mission.

Naming of the Mission-

India’s first solar mission is named as Aditya L1.

·       Aditya for Sun

·       L1 for Lagrangian/Lagrange point 1.

     To study about the mission, we have to first understand about sun and Lagrange points. Therefore in this part, we will discuss about the same and in next part about the mission.

Sun – Sun is a fireball of hydrogen and helium gases. It is located at the centre of our solar system. It is orbited by other planets and asteroids of solar system.

Layers of the Sun –

 

Sun is divided in to two types of layers –

·       Inner layers

·       Outer layers

     Inner Layers –

§  Core

§  Radiative Zone and

§  Conductive Zone

 

     Outer Layers –

§  Photosphere

§  Chromosphere

§  Corona

   Aditya L1 will study outer layers of the sun.

Photosphere- It is the visible surface of the sun. It is seen in the sky during day. It emitted sunlight to reach on earth.

 

Chromosphere-It is a thin layer of plasma, located between photosphere and corona.

     It is hidden and cannot be seen by us. It can be observed during solar eclipse.

Transition Zone – Thin irregular zone that separates relatively cooler chromosphere layer from very hot corona layer.

Corona- It is the outer layer of sun’s atmosphere – far from its surface. It is 100 times hotter than sun’s surface. It is hidden by bright light of the sun’s surface. Can be viewed during total solar eclipse. Temperature is around 10⁶ K.

 

Sun’s Spots – It is the darker cooler region of sun’s photosphere relative to near region, but still temperature is 6500 ⁰ F. they formed at the regions on photosphere, where magnetic field is very strong (2500 stronger than earth).

Solar flares – Sudden release of energy in form of radiation.

Gravitational Force – this is type of attractive force acting on two mass bodies, which pull them towards each other.

Example – earth’s gravity is a type of gravitational force action on every mass on earth to keep them on ground.

                F = GMm/r² where,

§  F is gravitational force

§  G is gravitational constant

§  M is mass of large body

§  m is mass of small body

§  r is distance between large and small body.

 

           Centripetal Force – this is the force acting on an object that move around a circular path. This force act towards the centre of circular path.

              This force is responsible for movement of objects and their stability around a centre point or in an orbit.

                         F_C = mv²/r where,

§  F_C is centripetal force

§  m is the mass of object

§  v is the velocity of object

§  r is the radius of circular path 

 

                                             

             Further details will be discussed in next part of this article.

 

                                                        -     By Pooja Gupta