China on Tuesday released the first batch of images captured by the country's first multipurpose solar probe at a press conference at the National Space Science Center in Beijing.

The Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), dubbed Kuafu-1, has been operating in orbit 720 kilometers from the Earth, facing the sun since its launch in October. It is the world's first near-Earth satellite telescope to simultaneously monitor solar flares, coronal mass ejections and the sun's magnetic field.