China’s leading astronomer has said the country plans to launch the world’s largest and most advanced space solar telescope (SST) into orbit in 2008. Ai Guoxiang, head of the National Astronomical Observatories, said that Chinese scientists could use the telescope to study solar physical frontiers. The SST will be used to study the solar magnetic field, fine structures of the sun surface, the energy accumulation and release of solar flares and sun-earth interaction. The solar magnetic field has proven itself difficult to measure.
