India
After a soft landing on the moon’s south pole, india is all set to launch its sun mission-aditya-l1. On September 2, 2023, Saturday around 11:50 a.m. Indian Space and Research Organisation (isro) will be launching its much-awaited solar mission with its first space-based observatory class Indian solar mission to study the sun.
The first solar mission launched by India has the potential to transform our understanding of the mechanics of the sun and space weather.
The mission will study the sun from a unique vantage point: the lagrange point l1, which is about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. This is a point where the sun’s and the earth’s gravitational forces balance each other, creating a stable orbit for a spacecraft.
But Indians have been curious about our parent star for a long time. For instance, Aryabhata: India’s first satellite, launched in 1975 by a Soviet rocket took the first peep at the sun. It carried a payload to measure x-ray emissions from the sun.
Long before that, the Rig Veda, which is one of the oldest and most sacred texts of Hinduism, dating back to around 1500 BC mentioned the sun as the source of light, heat, and energy. It also described solar eclipses, solstices, and equinoxes.
Again the Surya Siddhanta, a Sanskrit treatise in astronomy dated to the 4th to 5th century estimated the diameter of the sun as 1.39 million kilometers, which is very close to the modern value of 1.392 million kilometers.
Aditya, which means the sun in sanskrit is set to examine the sun from a closer proximity will take the scientific quest to a greater height.
Ancient indians were high on scientific research on the sun and its relation to other celestial bodies. They used observation, logic, mathematics, and experimentation to develop their theories and methods.
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