A long filament of solar material hovering in the Sun’s atmosphere.
(NASA Goddard)
Our Sun is a giant ball of hot plasma, and it supports a dynamic atmosphere that affects nearly everything in the solar system. Notably, the powerful eruptions from the Sun—flares and coronal mass ejections—spew a stream of charged particles throughout the solar system. Some eruptions are so powerful that they can completely disrupt satellite-based communication on Earth.
Therefore, multiple space missions from space agencies across the globe study the dynamics of the Sun with keen eyes. The Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 is one among them, even though its primary mission is to study the Moon.
Recently, the Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer onboard ISRO’s C-2 orbiter recorded powerful solar proton events from the Sun. What makes it an even more exciting feat is that most global missions could not detect such a strong energy output.
In a media statement, ISRO revealed that the event was “seen” by NASA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) satellite too but remained undetected by it. The GOES satellite failed to detect the event since it orbits around Earth and the Earth’s magnetic field protects the planet from such harmful solar events.
Chandrayan spacecraft.
(IANS)
On the other hand, orbiting the Moon, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 orbiter was able to detect it as charged particles rushed through.
There are five classes of solar flares basically characterised as A, B, C, M, and X—from smallest to most extreme. Among these, the M and X classes of flares are said to be the most powerful ones.
“Each letter represents a 10-fold increase in energy output. This means that an M class flare is ten times more intense than a C-class flare and 100 times more intense than a B-class flare. Within each letter class, there is a finer scale from 1 to 9, i.e., an M2 flare is twice the strength of M1 flare,” explains ISRO.
Chandrayaan-2 orbiter’s instrument detected two M-class solar flares—M5.5 and M1.5—released from the Sun this January. Despite the tragic end to the lander, Chandrayaan-2’s orbiter continues to beam back valuable details.
Another critical observation made by the instrument was the release of energetic particles with one of the flares. It found that Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) accompanied the flare M1.5, consisting of energetic particles due to high-intensity solar flares. This event is also known as the solar proton event or SPEs.
Such high energy protons can severely impact space systems and increase the risk of harmful radiation to astronauts in space. The recorded CME travelled at about 1000 km/s and took at least 2-3 days to reach Earth.
“Such multi-point observations help us understand the propagation and its impact on different planetary systems,” reads ISRO’s statement. As the space agency gears up for the launch of the Chandrayaan-3 mission this year, the orbiter’s success in collecting crucial data about our cosmic neighbourhood remains encouraging.
Chandrayaan-2 holds credit for unravelling several intriguing mysteries, like confirming the presence of water molecules on the Moon to demystifying the coronal heating process.
ISRO launched the second lunar mission in July 2019, and nearly a month later, on August 20, 2019, the historic lunar mission spacecraft entered lunar orbit. The Chandrayaan-2 mission is believed to be 95-98% successful due to precise mission management that has ensured a long life for the orbiter.
ISRO is also aiming to launch several other ambitious missions this year, namely Aditya L1, Gaganyaan’s first uncrewed flight, and other Earth observation satellites.
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