China launched the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), nicknamed Kuafu-1 in Chinese on October 9, 2022 from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia .
About ASO-S Mission
- The trio of instruments on board will provide insights into how the Sun’s magnetic field causes coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and other eruptions.
- Scientists in China have reportedly been waiting a long time for such an observatory. It was deployed successfully into its target orbit, a sun-synchronous path about 450 miles (720 kilometers) above Earth.
- The ASO-S mission was first proposed by the Chinese heliophysics community in 2011.
- The 1,960-pound (888 kilograms) probe will use three instruments to study the sun’s magnetic field, solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), huge bursts of superheated plasma that rocket away from the sun at millions of miles per hour.
