France and China have launched a new satellite into orbit as part of the joint Space Variable Object Tracking (SVOM) mission. According to the information on the Phys.org portal, the device was launched on June 22 with the China Long March 2-C rocket from the Xichang spaceport in China’s Sichuan province. Agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).
SVOM is designed to detect gamma ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in space. They occur during supernovae or stellar mergers. This produces extremely bright cosmic rays capable of emitting more energy than a billion billion suns.
Gamma-ray bursts carry signatures of the gas clouds and galaxies they pass through as they travel through space.
The most distant explosions detected to date occurred just 630 million years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was still in its infancy.
The main problem is that gamma-ray bursts are extremely short-lived, forcing scientists to race against time to gather information.
SVOM will have an orbital position of 625 kilometers above Earth. When a surge is detected, the device will automatically send an alert to the mission team. Experts will need to launch a network of telescopes on the ground within five minutes and point them at the source of the flash.
Previous scientists I learnedWhether life on Earth could survive a nearby supernova explosion.
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Source: Gazeta
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