Page 8 - Spec Tech Vol 1 Issue 09
P. 8
China's new solar probe snaps its 1st
image of the sun
Image Credit: CAS
China's recently launched Advanced ionosphere and radio communications on
Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S) has Earth.
returned its first image, showing an M-class ASO-S, nicknamed Kuafu-1, launched on Oct.
flare erupting on the sun.
8 into a sun-synchronous orbit about 450 miles
The sun image was produced by the (720 kilometers) above Earth, from which it will
spacecraft's Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) and monitor the sun's magnetic field and observe
released by the Purple Mountain Observatory solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which
(PMO) under the Chinese Academy of hurl vast quantities of superheated plasma into
Sciences (CAS). space.
HXI captured the eruption of a medium The probe aims to further our understanding of
class solar flare on Nov. 11, just weeks after how these violent events are generated and
ASO-S was launched. The event saw a improve space weather predictions. HXI and
tremendous explosion of electromagnetic ASO-S's two other science instruments have
radiation from the sun's atmosphere. These been tested and calibrated, and the probe has
and larger solar flares can affect the already started its operational science phase.
Space Explorer 2022 8
