Aditya-L1 will orbit in L1 point around the Sun; know what Lagrange points are   

India’s first solar mission Aditya-L1 has successfully started its journey towards the L1 point today where it will orbit the Sun. But do you know what exactly Lagrange points are?

Well, According to NASA, Lagrange Points are positions in space where the gravitational forces of a two-body system like the Sun and Earth produce enhanced regions of attraction and repulsion.

At these points, the spacecraft can stay still in space with minimal use of fuel.

There are five special points where a small mass can orbit in a constant pattern with two larger masses. NASA says these are labeled as L1, L2, L3, L4 and L5.

This concept was introduced by Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange.

As per ISRO, Aditya-L1 will stay in  Earth-bound orbits for 16 days, during which it will undergo 5 maneuvres to gain the necessary velocity for its journey. 

After that,  Aditya-L1 will undergo a Trans-Lagrangian1 insertion maneuvre, marking the beginning of its 110-day trajectory to the destination around the L1 Lagrange point. 

After arrival at the L1 point, another maneuvre will bind Aditya-L1 to an orbit around L1, which is a balanced gravitational location between the Earth and the Sun. 

The Aditya-L1  satellite will spend its whole mission life orbiting around L1 in an irregularly shaped orbit in a plane roughly perpendicular to the line joining the Earth and the Sun.

This strategic placement at the L1 Lagrange point will ensure that Aditya-L1 can maintain a constant, uninterrupted view of the Sun.  This location will also allow the spacecraft to assess solar radiation and magnetic storms before they are influenced by Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere. 

The stability of the L1 point’s gravitational stability minimizes the need for frequent orbital maintenance efforts which in turn will optimize the spacecraft's operational efficiency.

In this mission, Aditya-L1 will stay approximately 1.5 million km away from Earth, looking towards the Sun, which is about 1% of the Earth-Sun distance. From this distance, Aditya-L1 will study the outer surface of the Sun.