China’s Solar Observing Satellite Shares Its First Sun Photo

Continuing to compete with the USA and Europe in space exploration, China launched the new spacecraft ‘Advanced Space-Based Solar Observatory’ (ASO-S) to observe the Sun in October. The spacecraft sent its first observation to Earth.

The first photo from China’s Sun-observing spacecraft revealed an event known as ‘Solar ejection’. Its explosion in the photo was an M-class explosion, representing ‘moderate’ intensity on the severity scale set for this event.

First photo from China’s Sun watcher:

• 11 November was filmed with “Hard X-ray Imager (HXI)” equipment at ASO-S.

ASO-S, also known by the nickname Kuafu-1, was launched into space on October 8 and was put into orbit at an altitude of 720 kilometers from the ground. The spacecraft will monitor the Sun’s magnetic field and ultimately aim to provide more clues as to how these violent events occur.