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The Total Solar Eclipse is happening on April 8 ,2024 when the Sun, Moon, and Earth line up, causing daytime darkness. India's
Aditya L1
probe will watch the Sun as the Moon covers it, making parts of North America briefly dark.
Aditya L1,launched by
ISRO
in 2023 has six tools to study the Sun from a spot called Lagrange Point 1, about 15 kilometers away. Two of these tools, the
Visible Emission Line Coronagraph
(VELC) and the
Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope
(SUIT), could observe the Sun during the eclipse. VELC studies the Sun's outer layer, while SUIT takes images in near ultraviolet.
During the eclipse, the Sun's outer layer, the corona, becomes visible as the Moon blocks the Sun's disk, revealing the bright layers. Normally, we can't see the corona from Earth.
Satellite
Professor Durgesh Tripathi from
IUCAA
said they plan to use Aditya L1's SUIT instrument to observe the Sun during the eclipse. The spacecraft reached Lagrange Point 1 this year after leaving Earth in 2023. It's now observing the Sun.
In February, Aditya-L1 detected the first impact of solar wind from Coronal Mass Ejections using the Plasma Analyser Package (Papa) payload. The magnetometer boom was deployed in January.
Aditya-L1's goal is to learn more about the Sun's corona, photosphere, and the effects of solar winds. Its instruments have been tested during its journey and are working well.
Solar Eclipse
Europe's Solar Orbiter will also observe the Sun during the eclipse, providing a different perspective. This rare event gives astronomers a chance to learn more about the Sun's behavior using both ground-based telescopes and space probes
