A French-Chinese telescope satellite will take off later this week on a mission to detect the most powerful gamma-ray bursts in the universe.
The beam from this almighty explosion traveled billions of light years to reach Earth. Therefore, scientists believe that some of the mysteries of the universe’s youth can be answered. However, this glow is so brief that it has proven difficult to observe.
To learn more, the Space Variable Object Monitor (SVOM) will be launched on Saturday from the Xichang launch site in China’s Sichuan province on a Chinese Long March 2C rocket.
The spacecraft, carrying two Chinese and two French instruments, will orbit 625 kilometers above Earth.
Chen Lan, an analyst specializing in China’s space program, highlighted the joint mission’s “political significance”. “At a ‘dark time’ for relations between China and the West, the mission ‘demonstrates that scientific cooperation can continue despite difficulties.'”
SVOM’s mission is to use its X-ray vision to track down sources of gamma-ray bursts. It is detected in the sky approximately once each day.
“This cosmic research started in the middle of the Cold War,” said Bertrand Cordier, chief scientist for France’s contribution to SVOM.
In 1967, US satellites were monitoring whether nations were complying with the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. They observed a brief flash of gamma-rays that could also be produced by a nuclear explosion.
“Before they discovered that it came from space, they thought they were dealing with nuclear explosions on Earth”, Cordier told a press conference, “Since then we have been trying to understand the origin of these objects.”
Many missions, including NASA’s Swift Telescope, have already shed some light on these bright mysteries.
Considered the most powerful event in the known universe, the explosion is a flash of high-energy light. It emits gamma-rays and lasts between one second and one tenth of a second. Agency