L1 Point

The L1 point between the Earth and the sun is used for satellites in a halo orbit to watch the sun, looking for solar flares. The L2 point beyond the Earth is used for space telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope launched on 25 December 2021. It is a million miles about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.

L1 The closer an object is to the Sun, the faster it will move. So, any spacecraft going around the Sun in an orbit smaller than Earth's will soon overtake our planet. However, there is a loophole if the spacecraft is placed directly between the Sun and Earth, Earth's gravity pulls it in the opposite direction and cancels some of the Sun's pull.

The L 1 point lies on the line defined between the two large masses M 1 and M 2. It is the point where the gravitational attraction of M 2 and that of M 1 combine to produce an equilibrium. An object that orbits the Sun more closely than Earth would typically have a shorter orbital period than Earth, but that ignores the effect of Earth's

The L5 point was the focus of a major proposal for a colony in quotThe High Frontierquot by Gerard K. O'Neill and a major effort was made in the 1970's to work out the engineering details for creating such a colony. There was an active quotL5 Societyquot that promoted the ideas of O'Neill. The Lagrange points L 1, L 2, and L 3 are unstable equilibrium

Learn about the five Lagrange points, locations in space where the gravity of the Sun and Earth balance out. Find out which points have been used for scientific satellites and why L5 is the most famous one.

It may also have been because the point between the two bodies was the first Lagrange point to be used in placing satellites. In general the astronomical community may prefer the original numbering scheme whereas the space community almost universally uses the sequence L2-L1-L3. However, Lagrange point labelling is a matter of convention.

How far is the L1 point from Earth? The Earth-sun L1 point is about 932,000 miles 1.5 million km from Earth. The L2 point is the same distance but in the opposite direction, away from the sun.

The first three Lagrange points are nominally unstable. While it is possible to find stable periodic orbits around these points, if an object located at the L 1 point drifted closer to one of the masses, the gravitational attraction it felt from that mass would be greater, and it would be pulled closer. The pattern is very similar to that of

The L1 point of the Earth-Sun system affords an uninterrupted view of the sun and is currently home to the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Satellite SOHO. The L2 point of the Earth-Sun system was the home to the WMAP spacecraft, current home of Planck, and future home of the James Webb Space Telescope. L2 is ideal for astronomy because a

Spacecraft Observatories at L1 The L1 point is a very good position for monitoring the solar wind, which reaches it about one hour before reaching Earth. In 1978 the quotInternational Sun-Earth Explorer-3quot ISEE-3 was launched towards L1, where it conducted such observations for several years. Equipped with an on-board rocket and an ample supply