What happened?

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to launch the Aditya-L1 solar probe at 11.50 AM today (September 2) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. This comes less than ten days after ISRO became the first space agency to soft land near the Moon’s south pole.

Aditya-L1 will be India’s first space-based mission to study the sun’s activities and their effect on space weather. It’ll join the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Solar Orbiter, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, and ESA-NASA’s SOHO to solve the sun's mysteries.

Why study the sun?

Solar explosions

Sun releases a great amount of energy every second. It also undergoes several explosive events as well. One such event is called Solar flares. They are intense bursts of radiation from the sun that have the potential to damage electronic equipment and disrupt communication on Earth. Their early detection and interventions are crucial.

Sun is also a star

Sun is our closest star. It can be studied in much more detail than any other star. Its in-depth examination will help us understand more about the functioning of stars in our Milky Way and other galaxies.

Some important terms you should know:

Lagrange point

When two bodies are orbiting each other, there are spots in space where the gravitational forces balance each other. These spots are called Lagrange points. The points offer a stable location for spacecraft and probes for observation. Moreover, as the forces in these points are in balance, the spacecraft can stay in a stable position for a longer period without using much fuel.

Earth and the sun have five Lagrange points. Aditya L1 will be placed in Lagrange point 1.

Photosphere, Chromosphere and Corona

Sun is a ball of gas. It is made up of several layers. The photosphere is the visible layer of the sun that emits the sunlight we see. This is the layer where we can find dark and light spots. These spots are actually the colder and hotter regions of the layers.

Corona is the outmost layer of the sun’s atmosphere. It extends into the nearby space. Despite being farther than the sun’s core, the energy source, Corona is hotter than the inner layer of the Photosphere.

Coronal Ejections

As mentioned earlier, the sun undergoes several explosive events. Coronal ejection is one such event that occurs in the sun’s corona. It is a massive blast of charged particles and magnetic fields. Some ejections can be so huge that they can release billions of tons of charged particles into space. When these particles hit Earth, we see the beautiful northern lights or Aurora.

What’s next?

Once launched, Aditya-L1 will travel for nearly 125 days to reach Lagrange Point 1. Once in place, it will send nearly 1500 images to ISRO’s ground station.

Un-mapped

China uses Arunachal in its maps

This map China released on August 28 shows the entire State of Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin region within China’s borders. It came as a part of China’s routine ‘exercise for sovereignty.’

The map has increased diplomatic tensions between the two countries, with India lodging a ‘strong protest’ against China and calling the neighbouring country’s move ‘absurd’. China responded by asking India not to ‘overinterpret’ the map.

The map was released only a week after PM Modi and President Xi talked briefly at the BRICS summit held in Johannesburg, during which they agreed to resolve the border dispute. However, experts argue that the recent move by China will complicate the ongoing dispute even more.

It’s worth noting that the newly released map isn’t rare. China has released official maps in the past as well that show Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin region as its territory. Earlier in April, China attempted to rename 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls ‘South Tibet’. India responded by saying that the state will always be ‘an integral part of India.’

There are no chances of military retaliation from India’s side. It’ll use diplomatic channels to raise its concerns, as it has previously done. However, the new map might undo both sides' progress in de-escalating tensions along the disputed borders.

Bonus Section

Should you celebrate all your failures?

There has always been a lot of stress on the importance of failure in success. We’re advised to see failure as a sign of ‘growth.’ But does that mean all failures are good? Are there any failures that you shouldn’t tolerate?

Business magnate Jeff Bezos offers a clear distinction here. He says there are two kinds of failures: experimental failure and operational failure.

Say you’re building something new and experimenting in some way. Things don’t work out the way you had expected. That’s an experimental failure. You should be happy with this kind of failure. You should see it as a sign that you’re thinking big enough.

But you shouldn’t be proud of certain kinds of failures. These are called operational failures. For example, if you fall short at something that should have been knowable and doable with careful decision-making and effort, you just messed up.

Bezos gives the example of Amazon’s distribution centres. He said the company had built hundreds of distribution centres at Amazon over the years. They’ve experience at hand. They know where things can go wrong and how to avoid it. Bezos says if they were to build a new distribution centre and it's a disaster, that's just bad execution. That's not a good failure.

Here, the right response is to accept your shortcomings and let them push you better next time. You could start by reflecting on the failures you recently encountered and categorise them into the distinction Bezos gives. For operational failures, note where things went wrong and what you could’ve done to avoid the undesirable outcome. This way, you’ll be able to make better decisions in the future.

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