ISRO's Aditya-L1 spacecraft captures full-disk images of Sun, see pictures

The Indian space agency said that the instrument used various scientific filters to capture the Sun's photosphere and chromosphere in this wavelength range.

“On November 20, 2023, the SUIT payload was powered ON. Following a successful pre-commissioning phase, the telescope captured its first light science images on December 6, 2023. These unprecedented images, taken using eleven different filters (as shown in Table 1), include the first-ever full-disk representations of the Sun in wavelengths ranging from 200 to 400 nm, excluding Ca II h. The full disk images of the Sun in the Ca II h wavelength have been studied from other observatories,” read a statement by ISRO.

The SUIT instrument captured sunspots, plage, and quiet Sun regions, as marked in the Mg II h image. It provided scientists with pioneering insights into the intricate details of the Sun's photosphere and chromosphere, the ISRO statement read.

These observations will further help the ISRO scientists to study the dynamic coupling of the magnetised solar atmosphere and will also assist them in placing tight constraints on the effects of solar radiation on Earth's climate.

Under the leadership of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune, a cooperative effort was made to develop the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) instrument. Among other agencies or institutions involved were ISRO, the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), the Centre for Excellence in Space Science Indian (CESSI) at IISER-Kolkata, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics Bengaluru, the Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO-PRL), and Tezpur University Assam.

Aditya L1 was successfully launched on September 2. It is India’s first solar mission dedicated to the comprehensive study of the Sun. Aditya L1 is situated in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, roughly 15 lakh km from Earth. Among its various unique advantages include uninterrupted, continuous observation of the Sun and real-time monitoring of solar activity and its impact on space weather.