Aditya L1 will be the first Indian mission to visit our nearest star. The spacecraft will be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun, which is about 1.5m km from the Earth.

A satellite placed in the halo orbit around this point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any eclipses, which will enable it to observe solar activities and its effect on space weather in real time.

The spacecraft has already arrived at its launch site on the island of Sriharikota on India’s east coast in preparation for the launch.

It 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.

From its vantage point, four payloads will directly view the Sun, while the remaining three will carry out in-situ studies of its particles and fields.

According to The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Aditya L1...