BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's science news from the past week:

SMART SUPPLY CHAINS

China's new-generation smart supply chain has been sustaining the anti-epidemic fight and work resumption, the Science and Technology Daily reported Friday.

The artificial intelligence (AI) open innovative platform of the smart supply chain is playing its role thanks to the joint efforts of government authorities and enterprises, said Zhou Bowen, president of JD Cloud&AI and JD Group Technology Committee.

Variants of the emerging smart supply chains quickly showed the power of AI and other innovative digital technologies, thanks to the country's persistent efforts in boosting the sectors.

FLAMMABLE ICE EXPLORATION

China on Thursday announced that several breakthroughs were made during a recent trial exploration of mining gas hydrates, known as flammable ice, in the South China Sea.

In the Shenhu sea area with a depth of 1,225 meters, the country has extracted 861,400 cubic meters of gas, with an average daily extraction of 28,700 cubic meters, setting two new world records, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources.

NEWLY DISCOVERED ASTEROIDS

An asteroid made a flyby of Earth earlier this week at a distance of about 144,000 km, the closest pass by a minor planet observed through telescopes, a Chinese observatory statement said.

The asteroid called 2020 FL2 flew past Earth at 04:38 a.m. Beijing Time on March 23, according to the International Asteroid Warning Network and the Minor Planet Center (MPC) under the International Astronomical Union.

EXPERIMENTAL MANNED SPACESHIP

A trial version of China's new-generation manned spaceship is being tested at the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the coast of south China's island province of Hainan, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

The experimental spacecraft is scheduled to launch with no crew in mid to late April on the maiden flight of the Long March-5B carrier rocket, a variant of the Long March-5, China's largest carrier rocket.

SOLAR TELESCOPE

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced Tuesday that they have built the country's first and one of the world's largest solar telescope, to better observe and forecast solar activity.

The Chinese Large Solar Telescope (CLST), with a 1.8-meter aperture, was developed by the academy's Institute of Optics and Electronics. It caught the first batch of high-resolution images of the solar atmosphere on Dec. 10, 2019, an academy statement said. Enditem

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