How India’s Aditya-L1 Solar Observatory Will Study the Sun

Aditya-L1 launch.
Image credit: ISRO.
Just about a week after a flawless launch, India’s first mission to study the Sun, Aditya-L1, has officially begun its observations of our star. Although the spacecraft still has about four months of travel left before it reaches its cosmic home — a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, one instrument was briefly switched on Sunday (September 10) to gather unique observations about the behavior of solar wind, team members told SpaceRef.