Indian spacecraft on way to sun to monitor its outer layers

NEW DELHI: The Indian spacecraft on a mission to sun is said to have crossed the sphere of earth’s influence.

The Aditya-L1 mission, which started its four-month journey on September 2, carries instruments to observe the sun’s outermost layers.

Named after the Hindu Sun deity, Aditya has travelled 920,000 kilometres (570,000 miles), just over half the journey’s total distance.

At that point, the gravitational forces of both astronomical bodies cancel out, allowing the mission to remain in a stable halo orbit around our nearest star.

“This is the second time in succession that ISRO could send a spacecraft outside the sphere of influence of the Earth, the first time being the Mars Orbiter Mission”, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

In August, India became the first country to land a craft near the largely unexplored lunar south pole, and just the fourth nation to land on the Moon.