In an “almost-out-of-service” period in 2021, China’s Tianwen-1 orbiter, along with Mars Express of the European Space Agency, helped solar scientists know more about what happens near the sun.
During the late September to mid-October stretch in 2021, China’s Mars orbiter experienced its first sun transit, when its communication with Earth was significantly disturbed by solar radiation.
The Mars Sun Transit is a phenomenon in which Earth and Mars move to opposite sides of the sun, and the three are almost in a straight line.
During the transit, Tianwen-1 and Mars Express sent out frequent signals, allowing radio telescopes on Earth to examine how those signals were affected.
A paper published recently in Astrophysical Journal Letters revealed that on Oct 9, 2021 – when the red planet’s projection point near the sun was 2.6 times solar radius away from the sun’s center – a violent solar burst event called a coronal mass ejection (CME) caused noticeable disturbances for a period of 10 minutes.
Also, coronal waves were detected near the projection point, a phenomenon reflecting how magnetic fields constrain solar winds, according to the study led by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The scientists also identified the high-speed primary solar wind when the CME was winding down. The high-speed solar wind was detected much closer to the sun than expected, according to the study.
China’s Tianwen-1 Mars mission, comprising an orbiter, lander and rover, was launched on July 23, 2020.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
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China’s space-based solar camera publishes data on solar atmosphere
Beijing (XNA) Jan 12, 2023
A China-developed space-borne solar camera studying the solar transition region released its first group of scientific data on Wednesday.
The 46.5-nanometer extreme-ultraviolet imager or Solar Upper Transition Region Imager (SUTRI), mounted on SATech 01 satellite, was launched into space on July 27, 2022, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China by a Lijian 1 carrier rocket.
SUTRI is the first solar imager in the world to work at a wavelength of 40 to 110 nanometers based … read more