India’s Aditya-L1 Solar Mission Delivers First Significant Results
India's first dedicated solar observation mission, Aditya-L1, has achieved a significant breakthrough in tracking a coronal mass ejection (CME), offering valuable data that could help protect Earth's infrastructure from future solar storms. The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (Velc), a key instrument onboard Aditya-L1, captured data on July 16th that allowed scientists to precisely determine the time and origin of a CME. CMEs are massive explosions of energy and charged particles from the Sun's outer atmosphere that can disrupt Earth's magnetic field and cause widespread technological disruptions. Professor R Ramesh of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, who designed Velc, explained the potential impact of CMEs, stating, "Imagine this huge fireball hurtling towards Earth. At its top speed, it would take just about 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance." The CME tracked by Velc originated on the Earth-facing […]