China’s first space-based solar telescope

• The Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S) – China’s first space-based solar telescope – was launched recently.

• The Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S) was launched aboard the Long March-2D carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern part of China.

• It is nicknamed Kuafu-1, after a mythical giant that sought to capture and tame the sun.

• The solar mission, which is expected to last for 4 years, will enable scientists to capture and study the previously unprecedented images of the Sun during the “solar maximum” (when sun has the highest number of sun spots). The solar maximum is expected to occur around the year 2025.

• The ASO-S is China’s first full-scale satellite dedicated to researching the Sun. It is the world’s first solar telescope capable of simultaneously monitoring both solar flares and coronal mass ejections.

• It will study the Sun from an orbit 720 km above the surface of the Earth.