From Sun's POV! Aditya L1 Takes Selfie, Sends Images of Earth, Moon From Deep Space

Ever seen what Earth and the Moon look from Sun’s POV? Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Aditya L1 spacecraft which has gone towards the Sun to study it has clicked a selfie, yes, a selfie and images of the Earth and the Moon.

In a post on microblogging site X, ISRO shared a video of the images taken by Aditya L1, which is destined for the Sun-Earth L1 point. The images were of Earth and the Moon and a selfie taken by the spacecraft.

The selfie shows VELC (Visible Emission Line Coronagraph) and SUIT (Solar Ultraviolet Imager) instruments as seen by the camera on-board Aditya L1 on September 4, 2023.

Aditya L1 spacecraft, which took off on September 2, is touted to be the first space-based Indian mission to study the Sun. The spacecraft shall be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth, ISRO said.

“A satellite placed in the halo orbit around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses. This will provide a greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather in real time,” ISRO’s website reads.

“The spacecraft carries seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic and particle and magnetic field detectors,” ISRO said.