Context:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has placed the Aditya-L1 spacecraft in a halo orbit around the Lagrange Point (L1).
ISRO’s Aditya-L1: Uninterrupted Solar Observation in Halo Orbit at Lagrangian Point
- According to the ISRO, the satellite will spend its whole mission life orbiting around Lagrange Point 1 in an irregularly shaped orbit in a plane roughly perpendicular to the line joining the earth and the sun.
- The Aditya-L1 satellite will be continuously viewing the sun without any occultation or eclipse and provides a greater advantage of observing the solar activities without obstruction.
Lagrange Points: Celestial Parking Spots for Uninterrupted Space Observation
- They have been named after Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange.
- There are five Lagrange points, L1 to L5, between any two-celestial body system.
- At these positions, the gravitational pull of the celestial bodies equals the centripetal force, thus the forces acting on the third body cancel each other out.
- The Lagrange Point 1 point of the Earth-Sun system provides an uninterrupted view of the sun and is currently home to the Solar and Helio spheric Observatory Satellite SOHO.
- According to NASA, the points can be used as ‘parking spots’ for spacecraft in space to remain in a fixed position with minimal fuel consumption.
Additional Information: Aditya-L1 Mission
News Source: The Hindu
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