A Long March-2D carrier rocket carrying the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S) blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China, October 9, 2022. China launched the solar exploration satellite into space on October 9, furthering the country’s scientific endeavor to unravel the secrets of the Sun. [IMAGE: WANG JIANGBO/XINHUA]

China sent a solar exploration satellite into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China on October 9, furthering the country’s scientific endeavor to unravel the mysteries of the Sun.

The Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), nicknamed Kuafu-1 in Chinese, will need four to six months of testing at a distance of 720 kilometers from the Earth. Then, the 859-kg satellite will enter normal operation to study the causality between the solar magnetic field and two major eruptive phenomena, namely solar flares and coronal mass ejections, thus providing data for space weather forecasting. The solar observatory will extend its working hours to over 96 percent of the year.

A space-borne observatory running at a sun-synchronous orbit is not hampered by the Earth’s rotations, while an Earth-based telescope can only see the Sun during the day.

“ASO-S is capable of probing the Sun 24 hours a day for most of the year,” said Gan Weiqun, the satellite’s principal scientist from the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “Its longest daily time-out is no more than 18 minutes, when it briefly passes through the shadow of the Earth each day from May to August.”

The solar probe, with a projected life of no less than four years, is designed to accumulate and transmit back some 500 gigabytes of data a day.

“The onboard detectors take pictures every few seconds or minutes, and during solar eruptions, they can rapidly increase their shutter speed to just one second so as to capture solar activities in more detail,” said Huang Yu, associate chief designer of the ASO-S science application system.

Source: Xinhua