India's PSLV-XL rocket has close links with Moon, Mars and the Sun

Aditya-L1, India's maiden mission to study the Sun, would carry seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun, the corona, in different wavebands. "The suits of Aditya L1 payloads are expected to provide most crucial information to understand the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities and their characteristics, dynamics of space weather, propagation of particle and fields etc," ISRO said on its website.

> The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) payload studies the solar corona and dynamics of Coronal Mass Ejections.
> The Solar Ultra-violet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) payload images the Solar Photosphere and Chromosphere in near Ultra-violet (UV) and also measures the solar irradiance variations in near UV.
> The Aditya Solar wind Particle EXperiment (ASPEX) and Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA) payloads study the solar wind and energetic ions, as well as their energy distribution.
> The Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS) and the High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS) studies the X-ray flares from the Sun over a wide X-ray energy range.
> The Magnetometer payload is capable of measuring interplanetary magnetic fields at the L1 point.

> First spatially resolved solar disk in the near UV band.
> Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) dynamics close to the solar disk (~ from 1.05 solar radius) and thereby providing information in the acceleration regime of CME which is not observed consistently.
> On-board intelligence to detect CMEs and solar flares for optimised observations and data volume.
> Directional and energy anisotropy of solar wind using multi-direction observations.

Aditya-L1 spacecraft is designed for providing remote observations of the solar corona and in situ observations of the solar wind at L1 (Sun-Earth Lagrangian point), which is about 1.5 million kilometres from the earth. It is going to launch on September 2 at 11:50 am. Aditya-L1 is a fully indigenous effort with the participation of national institutions., an ISRO official said, as reported by news agency PTI.

ISRO's much-anticipated space mission to the Sun is launched today. (Image: ISRO)

ISRO launched Aditya-L1 from the Sriharikota spaceport at 11:50 am. (Image: ISRO)

Here is why Aditya-L1 is unique to India and the world. (Image: ISRO)

This is the first solar mission for India. NASA and ESA are the only space agencies to have reached the Sun. (Image: ISRO)

First spatially resolved solar disk in the near UV band. (Image: ISRO)

Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) dynamics close to the solar disk (~ from 1.05 solar radius) and thereby providing information in the acceleration regime of CME, which is not observed consistently. (Image: ISRO)

On-board intelligence to detect CMEs and solar flares for optimised observations and data volume. (Image: ISRO)

Directional and energy anisotropy of solar wind using multi-direction observations. (Image: ISRO)