As Pragyan digs deep into moon, scientists at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre lab turn their gaze to solar wind

As Pragyan digs deep into moon, scientists at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre lab turn their gaze to solar wind

Subject : Science and technology

Section: space technology

Context:

• Scientists at the Space Physics Laboratory (SPL) under the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) here are getting ready to unravel the secrets of the solar wind as the Aditya-L1 mission, meant to study the sun, lifts off in September.

PAPA Payload of Aditya L-1 mission:

• The Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA) payload aboard Aditya-L1, one of seven scientific payloads aboard the challenging mission, was developed by the SPL to gain deeper insights into the phenomenon of the ‘solar wind’ (the constant stream of charged particles from the sun).
• The SPL’s PAPA payload will study the composition of the solar wind.
• It will look at the energy of electrons and the energy and mass of protons and ions in it. The study will also cover the angular variations.
• Weight of the Payload: 8kg.

Aditya L1 mission:

• ISRO describes Aditya-L1 as the ‘‘first space-based Indian mission to study the sun’‘ from a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the sun-earth system.
• The payloads onboard Aditya L1 are designed ‘‘to study the chromosphere, the photosphere and the outermost layers of the sun using electromagnetic and particle detectors”.
• ISRO will use an XL variant of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) to place the Aditya-L1 spacecraft in a low earth orbit.
• Once launched, it will take 125 days to travel to its destination at L1.

Important terms related to Sun:

• The solar interior, from the inside out, is made up of the core, radiative zone and convective zone. The solar atmosphere consists of the photosphere, chromosphere, and the corona (solar wind is an outflow of gas from the corona).
• Photosphere
  • The photosphere is an extremely uneven bright outer layer of the Sun that emits most of the radiation. The effective temperature on the outer side of the photosphere is 6000°C.
• Chromosphere
  • Above the photosphere is the chromosphere. It is a thin layer of burning gasses. It is a bit cooler — 4,320 ֯C.
• Corona
  • A corona is a distinctive atmosphere of plasma that surrounds the Sun and other celestial bodies. The Sun’s corona extends millions of kilometers into space and is most easily seen during a total solar eclipse.
• Solar wind:
  • The solar wind is made of plasma (ionised atoms), a stream of energized, charged particles, primarily electrons and protons, flowing outward from the Sun at speeds as high as 900 km/s and at a temperature of 1 million °C.
• Solar Flares
  • Solar are magnetic storms which appear to be very bright spots with a gaseous surface eruption. As solar flares are pushed through the corona, they heat its gas to anywhere from 10 to 20 million °C.
• Solar Prominence
  • An arc of gas that erupts from the surface of the Sun is called solar prominence. Prominences can loop hundreds of thousands of miles into space. They are held above the Sun’s surface by strong magnetic fields and can last for many months.

For details of Aditya L-1 mission: 

https://optimizeias.com/why-isros-aditya-l-1-mission-is-unique-in-many-ways/