China launches first solar observatory to solve mystery of Sun’s eruptions

China launched the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), nicknamed Kuafu-1 in Chinese at 7.43 AM Beijing time (5.13 AM ) on October 9, according to Chinese state-run media outlet Xinhua. Since then, ASO-S, which represents the country’s ambitions to unravel the mysteries of the Sun, has entered its planned orbit.
According to Nature, the trio of instruments on board will provide insights into how the Sun’s magnetic field causes coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and other eruptions. Scients in China have reportedly been waiting a long time for such an observatory. Such a mission was first pitched in the 1970s, Weiqun Gan, an astrophysic at the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Nanjing, to Nature.

The instruments on board the observatory include a magnetograph to study the Sun’s magnetic field, an X-ray imager for studying the high-energy radiations released electrons accelerated in solar flares and a coronagraph which will look at the Sun in the ultraviolet visible range, in order to observe the plasma produced solar flares and CMEs.
Scients understand that the Sun’s magnetic field is what causes the eruptions but understanding the exact nature of the relationship between the both has proven difficult so far. ASO-S has instruments that look across different wavelengths at once, which should make it easier to understand the connections.
According to the science objectives of the mission written Chinese Academy of Sciences officials, ASO-S will conduct simultaneous observations of both solar flares and CMEs to “understand their connections and formation mechanisms.”
Nature reports that ASO-S has the unique ability to study the middle corona, an important region of the sun where solar storms brew. According to the publication, this has never been seen before in its entirety in the ultraviolet spectrum.