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Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space recently – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.