Ten days after its Moon landing, India began a Sun journey last week. Aditya-L1, the nation's first solar space observatory, was placed in a "highly eccentric Earth-bound orbit" by Isro's PSLV-C57 in one of the time-consuming launches that lasted just over an hour. At Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, PSLV-C57 launched from the second launchpad with a 1,480.7 kg spacecraft carrying seven packages to explore solar activity.
Aditya will now travel for 125 days to a "halo orbit" 1.5 million km from Earth around the Lagrange point 1 (L1), where spacecraft can be stable due to a balance of cosmic forces. When it finally reaches the L1 point, seven instruments are expected to kick in and study solar activities, including coronal mass ejections and solar flares - explosions of magnetic energy capable of causing temporary blackouts of satellite signals and degrading high frequency radio waves.
Rover confirms sulphur on Moon
In the "first-ever in-situ" observations in the lunar polar region, the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) on board Chandrayaan-3 rover Pragyan revealed the existence of sulphur near the Moon's south pole, along with evidence of numerous other elements, according to Isro. Apart from sulphur, the space agency said graphically represented preliminary analyses have also unveiled the presence of aluminium, calcium, iron, chromium and titanium on the lunar surface.
ISRO puts rover in hibernation mode
The Isro reported that it had placed the Pragyan rover in a hibernation state as the daylight time on the Moon is drawing to a close in an effort to prolong the life of the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover.
“The Rover completed its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into Sleep mode. The Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover were expected to operate only for one Lunar day, which is equivalent to nearly 14 days on Earth. That is because the electronics are not designed to withstand very low temperatures, less than -120 degrees Celsius, during the night time on the Moon. The nighttime too extends for as long as 14 days on Earth. But there is a possibility that the electronics are able to survive the low temperatures and are able to power themselves again once the sunshine is available.