A French-Chinese satellite was launched on Saturday in search of the most powerful explosions in the universe, a remarkable example of cooperation between a Western power and an Asian giant.
The Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM), developed by engineers from both countries, carries with it four instruments — two French, two Chinese — that will search for gamma-ray bursts, whose light travels billions of light-years to reach Earth.
The China National Space Administration said the 930-kilogram (2,050-pound) satellite “successfully” took off on a Chinese Long March 2-C rocket at around 3:00 pm (0700 GMT) from the space station in Xichang in southwestern Sichuan province.
Gamma-ray bursts usually follow the explosion of giant stars – those up to 20 times more massive than the Sun – or the fusion of dense stars.
Extremely bright cosmic rays can blast out energy equivalent to more than a billion suns.
Astrophysicist Ore Gottlieb at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Astrophysics in New York told AFP that observing them is “like looking back in time, because the light from these objects takes a long time to reach us.”
‘Many secrets’
These rays carry traces of the gas clouds and galaxies they pass through on their journey through space – valuable data for better understanding the history and evolution of the universe.
“SVOM has the potential to unravel many mysteries in the field of gamma-ray bursts, including detection of the most distant GRB in the universe, which corresponds to the earliest GRBs,” Gottlieb said.
The most distant explosions known so far occurred 630 million years after the Big Bang – when the universe was in its infancy.
“We … are interested in gamma-ray bursts per se, because they are extremely intense cosmic explosions that help us better understand the death of some stars,” said Frederic Diagne, an astronomer at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics.
“All this data makes it possible to test the laws of physics with phenomena that are impossible to replicate in a laboratory on Earth.”
After analysis, the data can help better understand the structure of space, and the dynamics of gas clouds or other galaxies.
The project arises from a partnership between the French and Chinese space agencies and other scientific and technological groups from both countries.
“It’s a great success. We have managed to work well with our Chinese colleagues,” Philippe Baptiste, CEO of France’s CNES space agency, told AFP after the launch.
Space cooperation at this level between the West and China is quite unusual, especially since in 2011 the United States banned all forms of cooperation between NASA and Beijing.
Race against time
“US concerns over technology transfer have largely prevented US allies from collaborating with China, but it does happen sometimes,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the United States.
In 2018, China and France jointly launched CFOSAT, an oceanography satellite mainly used in marine meteorology.
Several European countries have also participated in China’s Chang’e lunar exploration program.
McDowell said that while SVOM is “by no means unique,” it is nonetheless “important” in the context of space cooperation between China and the West.
The satellite will send its data back to observatories once it reaches an orbit 625 kilometers (388 miles) above Earth.
The main challenge is that gamma-ray bursts are extremely brief, leaving scientists racing against time to gather information.
As soon as it detects an explosion, the SVOM will send an alert to the team on duty round the clock.
Within five minutes, they must activate a network of telescopes on the ground, precisely aligned with the axis of the explosion’s source, to make more detailed observations.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
