Aditya-L1 takes a selfie and images of Earth & Moon

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday released the first images from Aditya-L1 as the spacecraft continued on the initial leg of its four-month, 1.5 million-km journey to study the Sun.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday released the first images from Aditya-L1 as the spacecraft continued on the initial leg of its four-month and 1.5-million-km journey to study the Sun.

“Aditya-L1, destined for the Sun-Earth L1 point, takes a selfie and images of the Earth and the Moon,” ISRO said on X, formerly Twitter.

A 41-second video released by the space agency showed the Earth and the Moon – a speck identified right to the Earth – as seen by the camera on-board Aditya-L1, on September 4.

It also showed two of the mission’s seven payloads as seen by the camera– Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) and Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT).

VELC, developed by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, aims to study the solar corona (Sun’s outermost layer) and coronal mass ejections.

SUIT, developed by the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, is designed to image the lower and middle layers of the Sun’s atmosphere.

Aditya-L1, India’s first space-based mission to study the Sun’s outer layers at the closest-ever range, took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on September 2.

The spacecraft has undergone two of its five earth-bound manoeuvres that have raised it to a 282 km x 40225 km orbit. The third manoeuvre is scheduled for September 10.

After spending 16 days since launch on Earth-bound orbits, Aditya-L1 will be propelled towards L1, the first Lagrange point in the Sun-Earth system, about 1.5 million km from earth.

ISRO is scheduled to position the satellite on an L1 orbit, in January 2024, from where it is expected to observe the Sun continuously.