India's Aditya-L1 spacecraft reaches Sun orbit

January 7, 2024 10:03 AM

India's Aditya-L1 spacecraft reaches Sun orbit. The spacecraft has reached its home for the next five years, an orbit from where it will study the Sun and its influence on space weather.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (14 comments total)

that's so cool. or hot!
as the article points out, Aditya-1 is at a Lagrange point, which is the stuff of sci-fi (to me, anyway...)
posted by chavenet at 10:14 AM on January 7 [2 favorites]

Not gonna lie, my first thought was "isn't everything in the solar system in a Sun orbit?"
posted by Huggiesbear at 11:22 AM on January 7 [6 favorites]

technically jupiter orbits a point that lies outside the sun proper. and i guess VGER1 and 2 weren't orbiting the sun while they were on their way out of the solar system.
posted by logicpunk at 11:47 AM on January 7 [2 favorites]

Very cool! "Space weather" is also a very evocative idea. I do lowkey worry about the amount of space junk and how the night sky has been taken from so many of us, so curious to see how/if what they learn ends up affecting any of that.

Lagrange Point would be a great band name or a hell of a concept album
posted by smirkette at 11:50 AM on January 7

I've been orbiting the Sun, as well, for quite a few years.
posted by chasing at 12:13 PM on January 7 [2 favorites]

Lagrange Point would be a great band name or a hell of a concept album

Well, close.
posted by LionIndex at 12:33 PM on January 7 [2 favorites]

technically jupiter orbits a point that lies outside the sun proper.

TECHNICALLY, the combined mass of the planets pulling in changing directions causes the solar system to have a barycenter, or in other words, the theoretical "balance" point of the entire thing is constantly moving and has actually spent most of the last three decades entirely outside of the Sun itself.

If you isolate certain bodies, the Earth-Moon barycenter is variable but generally in the planet's crust instead of the center, while Pluto and Charon's barycenter is actually between the two bodies.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 1:02 PM on January 7 [6 favorites]

...while Pluto and Charon's barycenter is actually between the two bodies.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 1:02 PM on January 7

so it's not just a clever username.
posted by logicpunk at 1:57 PM on January 7 [7 favorites]

I was listening to a podcast interview with the author of a book on India's space program. He said it was a rare such effort which didn't involve the military.
posted by doctornemo at 4:13 PM on January 7 [1 favorite]

I was listening to a podcast interview with the author of a book on India's space program. He said it was a rare such effort which didn't involve the military.

Certainly true during the Indian Space Research Organization's first few decades, but with the establishment of the Defence Space Agency and the Defence Space Research Organisation as well as an integration mechanism for all three agencies, this distinction is fading.
posted by senor biggles at 8:43 PM on January 7 [1 favorite]

senor biggles, is this due to Modi?
posted by doctornemo at 6:23 AM on January 8

I can't be the only one with twisted brain, that insists, it's Adidas-L1 Spacecraft.
posted by Goofyy at 10:25 AM on January 8

doctornemo, I think the shift dates back to the late 2000s, so prior to Modi leading his party to electoral victory.
posted by senor biggles at 12:24 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]

Thank you, senor b.
posted by doctornemo at 6:55 PM on January 8