India’s Aditya-L1 mission has made a ground-breaking discovery, capturing the first-ever image of a solar flare ‘kernel’ in the lower solar atmosphere. The observation was made by the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT), one of Aditya-L1’s key scientific payloads.
Key Discovery Details
- Date of Observation: February 22, 2025
- Event Observed: X6.3-class solar flare (one of the most intense types of eruptions)
- Captured Region: Photosphere & Chromosphere (lower layers of the Sun’s atmosphere)
- Unique Feature: Detected brightening in the Near Ultraviolet (NUV) range (200-400 nm), which has never been observed in such detail before.
Why Is This Important?
- Unprecedented Insight: First detailed view of solar flare ‘kernels’ in the NUV range
- Understanding Solar Activity: Helps scientists study explosive solar events and their impact on Earth
- Space Weather Implications: Solar flares influence space weather, affecting satellites, communications, and power grids on Earth
About Aditya-L1 Mission
- Launched: September 2, 2023
- Orbit: Placed in Lagrange Point L1 (1.5 million km from Earth) on January 6, 2024
- Objective: Study the Sun’s outer layers, solar storms, and space weather dynamics
(Source: ISRO)
