Aditya-L1: India successfully launches its first mission to the Sun

India has launched its first observation mission to the Sun, just days after the country made history by becoming the first to land near the Moon`s south pole.
India's first space-based mission to study the solar system's biggest object is named after Surya - the Hindu god of Sun who is also known as Aditya.
On Saturday morning, a few thousand people gathered in the viewing gallery set up by the Indian Space Research Agency (Isro) near the launch site to watch the blast off.
Isro says the orbiter carries seven scientific instruments that will observe and study the solar corona (the outermost layer); the photosphere (the Sun's surface or the part we see from the Earth) and the chromosphere (a thin layer of plasma that lies between the photosphere and the corona).
The studies will help scientists understand solar activity, such as solar wind and solar flares, and their effect on Earth and near-space weather in real time.
Former Isro scientist Mylswamy Annadurai says the Sun constantly influences the Earth's weather through radiation, heat and flow of particles and magnetic fields.
India's solar mission comes just days after the country successfully landed the world's first-ever probe near the lunar south pole.
Solar Orbiter: Sun mission blasts off Probe makes historic pass through Sun's atmosphere If Aditya-L1 is successful, India will join the select group of countries that are already studying the Sun.
Japan was the first to launch a mission in 1981 to study solar flares and the US space agency Nasa and European Space Agency (ESA) have been watching the Sun since the 1990s.
In February 2020, Nasa and ESA jointly launched a Solar Orbiter that is studying the Sun from close quarters and gathering data that, scientists say, will help understand what drives its dynamic behaviour.