China’s Dark Matter Satellite Sends Back First Data

There ’s a new player in the hunt for grim matter : China ’s Dark Matter Particle Explore ( DAMPE ) planet , which launched on December 17 . Ground station havejust receive the first databeamed back from DAMPE . With all system fully operational , the satellite officially begins its three - class mission .

The major planet , stars , galaxies and everything else that we see makes up just 4.9 per centum of the stuff in the universe . Roughly 26.8 percent is dismal topic . ( The residual of the stuff — 68.3 percent — is made up of dark-skinned energy , which physicists think is cause the expansion of the creation to speed up . ) We can tell it ’s there because of its indirect result — heck , there ’s even a elaborated function , thanks to the Dark Energy Survey coaction — and physicistshave been searchingfor class to directly discover dark matter particles , using musical instrument in the sky and cryptical underground , thus far to no avail .

DAMPE — nickname “ Wukong”after the Monkey King characterfrom a sixteenth century Chinese novel , Journey to the West — is similar in plan to theAlpha Magnetic Spectrometer(AMS ) , presently aboard the International Space Station . ( It plunge in 2011 . ) Both instrument find gamma rays , electrons , and cosmic rays in hopes of finding hint to what , exactly , the morose issue might be . Thus far , AMS hasdetected some new antimatter particles , but physicists are hopeful this unexpected excessiveness could be a signature tune of dismal matter particles . DAMPE could help rectify the hunting further .

Starship Test 9