CNN Indonesia
Friday, 06 Oct 2023 20:30 IWST
The Indian space probe, Aditya-L1, will soon head to the Sun to monitor the center of our solar system. (Photo: Twitter screenshot @isro)
Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Indian space probe, Aditya-L1, has reportedly passed a crucial stage in its journey to escape the “reaching sphere of Earth’s atmosphere.” This vehicle will immediately go to the Sun to monitor the center solar system.
The Aditya-L1 mission began its journey towards the Sun after launching on September 2. This mission carries instruments to observe the outer layers of the Sun.
“This spacecraft has left Earth’s sphere of influence,” said the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in a statement on Saturday evening, citing AFP, Sunday (1/10).
Aditya, named after the Hindu sun god, has covered a distance of 920,000 kilometers (570,000 miles), more than half of the total journey distance. At that point, the gravitational forces of the two astronomical bodies cancel each other out, allowing the mission to remain in a stable halo orbit around a nearby star.
“This is the second time in a row that ISRO has been able to send a spacecraft beyond Earth’s sphere of influence, the first being the Mars Orbiter Mission,” ISRO added.
In August, India became the first country to land a probe near the Moon’s largely unexplored south pole, and only the fourth country to land on the Moon.
The Pragyan rover conducted a survey around its landing site, but was shut down before the start of the lunar night, which lasts about two weeks on Earth.
India hopes to extend the mission by reactivating the solar-powered vehicle once sunlight returns to the lunar surface, but has so far been greeted only by radio silence.
“It’s OK if it doesn’t wake up because the rover has done what it was expected to do,” ISRO chief S. Somanath said on Wednesday.
In 2014, India became the first Asian country to put a probe into orbit around Mars, and is scheduled to launch a three-day manned mission into Earth orbit next year.
The United States and the European Space Agency have sent a number of probes to the center of the solar system, starting with NASA’s Pioneer program in the 1960s. Meanwhile, Japan and China have launched their own solar observatory missions into Earth orbit.
But if successful, ISRO’s latest mission will be the first mission from an Asian country to be placed in orbit around the Sun.
(tim/dmi)
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2023-10-06 13:30:00
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