China launches space lab to study the Sun

China has sent a solar exploration satellite into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China, furthering the country’s scientific endeavour to unravel the mysteries of the Sun, Xinhua reports

Photo: www.english.news.cn

The Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), nicknamed Kuafu-1 in Chinese, was launched aboard a Long March-2D rocket carrier and entered its planned orbit successfully.

After four to six months of testing, the 859kg satellite will start normal operation 720km away from the Earth to study the causality between the solar magnetic field and two major eruptive phenomena, namely solar flares and coronal mass ejections, thus providing data support for space weather forecasting.