In Beijing, on Saturday, China launched a Chinese-French satellite prepared to monitor “gamma explosions,” the most powerful explosions in the universe, in a prominent example of cooperation between a Western power and the Asian giant.
Developed by engineers from both countries, the Space Variable Object Observatory (SVOM) will search for gamma-ray bursts, the light from which traveled billions of light-years to reach Earth.
The 930-kilogram satellite, which carries four instruments, two French and two Chinese, was launched at about three in the afternoon (7:00 GMT) aboard a Chinese Long March 2-C rocket from a space base in Xichang. In southwestern Sichuan Province, according to Agence France-Presse reporters.
Gamma-ray bursts usually occur after the explosion of massive stars, which are stars 20 times larger than the Sun, or the merger of stars colliding with each other.
Extremely bright cosmic rays can emit a blast of energy equivalent to more than a billion suns.
Uri Gottlieb, an astrophysicist at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Astrophysics in New York, told AFP that observing these explosions is like “looking back into ancient times. The light from these objects takes a long time to reach us.”
#Launching #ChineseFrench #satellite #discover #universe