India has launched a rocket to study the sun, marking another milestone in its space exploration program.
According to report, the rocket blasted off shortly before noon on Saturday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, in southern India, for a 1.5 million-kilometer, four-month journey toward the sun.
“Mission accomplished, the India Space Research Organization’s control room announced as the spacecraft hurtled into the Earth’s upper atmosphere”.
Congratulating Indian scientists, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X, formerly known as Twitter, “Our tireless scientific efforts will continue to develop better understanding of the Universe.”
The mission to study the sun’s outer layer is named Aditya L1, after the Hindu god of the sun, who is sometimes known as Aditya. If all goes according to plan, India will join a select group of countries that are studying the sun.
Indian scientists said the position will give a continuous, unobstructed view of the sun and enable them to conduct studies even during an eclipse.
After orbiting several times around the Earth for 125 days, the rocket will reach a so-called “halo orbit” of the sun-Earth system, where gravitational forces provide a stable location that makes it possible to conduct scientific studies of the sun’s outer atmosphere.
The U.S. space agency, NASA, and the European Space Agency have sent probes into the solar orbit since the 1990s. China and Japan also have launched solar observatory missions.
Discover more from DnewsInfo
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
