China’s dark matter spacecraft DAMPE phones home
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029473
Xinhua News Agency : China’s Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE ) has sent back its first set of data to Earth. Built by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of Geneva, and Italy’s Istituto Nazionale de Fisica Nucleare, DAMPE was launched on 17 December from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Gansu province. The explorer is looking for gamma rays, electrons, and high-energy cosmic rays that could indicate the presence of dark matter, which makes up most of the matter in the universe. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer , a similar cosmic-ray detector run by an international consortium, is on the International Space Station. Sometime next year, the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (ISS-CREAM ) experiment is expected to join it.
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Paul Guinnessy. pguinnes@aip.org