Solar Eclipse on April 8: Aditya-L1 to track the Sun during total eclipse

Aditya L1, the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) maiden solar mission, will track the Sun during the Total Solar Eclipse on April 8. Solar Eclipse occurs when the Sun, the Moon, and Earth line up, either fully or partially. It happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, casting a shadow on Earth that blocks the Sun's light. According to NASA, the time when the Moon, Sun and Earth are aligned is known as Eclipse season, which happens twice a year.

A Total Solar Eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun. People located in the centre of the Moon's shadow when it hits Earth will experience a Total Eclipse. During such a scenario, people can see the Sun's corona, the outer atmosphere.

The eclipse will be visible across North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. It will pass through several major cities, including Dallas, Little Rock, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo and Burlington, Vt. The path of totality is approximately 115 miles wide. The first Solar Eclipse of 2024 will not be visible in India.

Aditya-L1 reached the Lagrange Point 1 (L1 point) on January 6, 127 days after it was launched on September 2, 2023. The  mission is loaded with six instruments as it observes the Sun from Lagrange Point 1, 1.5 million km from Earth. 

Of the six, two instruments could be primed to observe the Sun during the eclipse. These are the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) and the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT).

The coronagraph observes the Sun's corona by obstructing its disk, simulating an eclipse on the spacecraft. Concurrently, the Suit captures images of the Solar Photosphere and Chromosphere in near ultraviolet light.

During a solar eclipse, the Sun's corona becomes visible when the Moon obstructs the solar disk, unveiling the bright outer layers briefly visible from Earth. This phenomenon is not observable from the planet under normal circumstances.

"The eclipse presents a rare opportunity to observe the Sun from both space and on Earth and then go on to get a comprehensive picture by cross-relating the observations at a later stage. We would be planning to observe the Sun with Aditya L1's Suit instrument," Professor Durgesh Tripathi, Principal Investigator of Aditya L1's Suit instrument at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) told India Today.