China to shine light on dark matter
Print Edition
A Chinese satellite is on a three-year mission to look for signs of the matter that scientists believe makes up most of the universe.
The Dark Matter Particle Explorer Satellite, named “Wukong” after the Monkey King from the Chinese classic “Journey to the West,” was launched yesterday morning from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert.
It will enter a sun-synchronous orbit at a height of 500 kilometers to observe the direction, energy and electric charge of high-energy particles in space.
Dark matter, which does not emit or reflect enough electromagnetic radiation to be observed directly, is one of the mysteries of modern science.
Theorized by scientists who could not understand missing mass and strangely bent light in faraway galaxies, the existence of dark matter has become widely accepted though not yet proved.
Scientists believe that only around 5 percent of the total mass-energy of the known universe is made up of ordinary matter — protons, neutrons, electrons — whereas dark matter and dark energy make up the rest.
Chang Jin, the project’s chief scientist said exploration of dark matter could give a clearer idea about the past and future of the universe, and even revolutionize the world of physics and space science.
Hints of the true nature of dark matter have already emerged from some previous observations, including those conducted by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station and the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN physics research center near Geneva, Switzerland.
China also runs an underground dark matter lab in the southwest province of Sichuan, some 2,400 meters under the earth’s surface.
So far, scientists have developed three investigative methods — a particle accelerator that “creates” dark matter particles; special targets underground to see traces left by colliding dark matter particles; and the calculation of dark matter particles’ annihilation or decay in space.
The new satellite will support research using the third method.
It will scan space in all directions in the first two years and then focus on sections where dark matter is most likely to be observed.
More than 100 scientists will study the data. Initial findings will be published in the second half of 2016.
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