After a historic landing on the South Pole of the Moon with Chandrayaan-3, India on Saturday successfully launched Aditya L-1, its first mission to the Sun. Unlike the lunar mission, it is obvious that the nation may have some difficulties landing on the burning gas ball.
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- ISRO’s first solar mission
- Here are four mysteries about the center of our solar system, the sun, that you should be familiar with:
- The mystery of the crown?
- The mystery of the magnetic field
- The mystery of the sun’s 11-year cycle
- The mystery of the Sun’s superflares
ISRO’s first solar mission
ISRO
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) aims to park the Aditya L1 spacecraft at a location marked as the “L1” point in space.
The place is located at a distance of 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. ISRO estimates that its spacecraft will achieve the feat in about 4 months from its launch on Saturday, September 2.
Studying the sun is of utmost importance, since disturbances in the form of solar flares, coronal mass ejections or solar winds can affect and negatively impact the space weather system and even cause changes in the environmental qualities of our planet.
Here are four mysteries about the center of our solar system, the sun, that you should be familiar with:
The mystery of the crown?
Scientists still don’t have much of an idea why the outermost atmosphere, known as the corona, is so much hotter than the sun’s surface. The solar corona, which sits above the heat source, is estimated to be 1,000 times hotter than the surface. Questions also arise as to why Corona holds on to this amount of heat.
The mystery of the magnetic field
Magnetic fields have been observed on the surface of the sun; they are called sunspots. These have also been found in the sun’s atmosphere as coronal loops. However, scientists believe that these magnetic fields are probably generated indoors.
The mystery of the sun’s 11-year cycle
Sunspots and the sun’s magnetic activity exhibit an 11-year cycle of waxing and waning. At the beginning of the solar cycle, sunspots usually appear around mid-latitudes, but as the cycle progresses, they progressively move closer to the equator. The 11-year cycle may seem unusual, as the Sun’s surface features change on a much shorter time scale, fluctuating roughly daily.
The mystery of the Sun’s superflares
Annually, major solar events cause billions of dollars in damage and cause power outages, communications disruptions, and electrical system malfunctions. A shift toward a space exploration program that prioritizes human presence on the Moon or Mars emphasizes the greater importance of these consequences of space weather. These consequences are closely related to magnetic fields, which arise when magnetic energy must be released due to the twisting and stretching of these fields.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn