ISRO scientists study Sun using Mangalyaan
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Loading... - Angel Tamboli
- 02 Mar 2022
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A team of scientists from different units of ISRO used ‘S-band’ radio signals from Mangalyaan, the Indian Mars orbiter, to study the solar corona — the layer of the Sun that extends millions of kilometres into space — and located the area of the sun where the temperature rises abruptly.
The scientists utilised the solar conjunction event, when the Earth and Mars are on the opposite sides of the Sun, that occurred in May-June 2015 for the study. The Sun's activity was low at that time.
During conjunction events, which happens once in two years for Mars, the radio signals from Mangalyaan pass through the solar corona — about 10 solar radii or about 69,57,000 km from the centre of the Sun. This provides scientists a unique opportunity to study solar dynamics. Each solar radii is about 6,95,700 km.
The scientists involved in the study were from Space Physics Laboratory of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram; Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad; and ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bengaluru.
The results were published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society by the authors of the study Richa N. Jain, R.K. Choudhary, Anil Bhardwaj, Umang Parikh, Bijoy K. Dai, and Roopa M.V.
According to the study, the scientists found that the transition of solar wind — charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun — from slower speeds to higher velocities (technically sub-alfvenic to super-alfvenic flow) occurs in a region that is 10 to 15 times the solar radii (69.6 lakh km to about 104.4 lakh km) from the centre of the Sun.
The Sun’s surface is a few thousand degree Kelvin (a unit of measurement of temperature, like the Celsius) while in the outer atmosphere, the solar corona, the temperature rises to several million degrees Kelvin. Why this happens is not known.
It is important to study the corona since it passes through the interplanetary spaces, and affects the near-Earth space environment through a phenomenon known as space weather. Read More…
