China sent two satellites for the detection of gravitational waves into planned orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province on Thursday morning.
The two satellites, which compose the Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM) mission, were launched by a Long March-11 carrier rocket at 4:14 a.m. (Beijing Time), according to the center.
Thursday's launch was the 355th mission of the Long March rocket series.
The GECAM satellites will be used to monitor high-energy celestial phenomena such as gravitational wave gamma-ray bursts, high-energy radiation of fast radio bursts, special gamma-ray bursts and magnetar bursts, and to study neutron stars, black holes and other compact objects and their merger processes.
In addition, they will also detect high-energy radiation phenomena in space, such as solar flares, Earth gamma flashes and Earth electron beams, providing observation data for scientists.
The GECAM project is carried out by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Long March-11 rocket is developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. (Xinhua)
China Wednesday launched a new space science program focusing on the origin and evolution of the universe, black holes, gravitational waves and relationship between the solar system and human. The Chinese Academy of Sciences announced to develop a group of four satellites in the program. The program includes a satellite named "Einstein-Probe (EP)", which is tasked with discovering celestial bodies that emit X-rays during fierce changes as well as quiescent black holes with transient high-energy radiation.
In the early morning of Jan. 20 (Beijing Time), the Gravitational wave high energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM or Huairou-1) team reported their first detection of a gamma-ray transient (GRB 210119A) in the Gamma-ray Coordinates Network (GCN). With this achievement, GECAM is now part of the global efforts to observe gamma-ray transients in the multi-wavelength multi-messenger astronomy era.
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