China's Cosmic 'Monkey King' Satellite Looks for Dark Matter

[Judi Lynn]

By Charles Q. Choi, Space.com Contributor | November 29, 2017 05:33pm ET

By analyzing cosmic rays in space, China's "Monkey King" satellite is now helping pin down the identity of dark matter, a new study finds.

The Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) satellite, launched in 2015, is China's first space observatory. DAMPE's aim is to help find the origins of dark matter — the mysterious, invisible substance that researchers suspect makes up about five-sixths of all matter in the universe.

DAMPE is nicknamed "Wukong" after Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, the mischievous, shape-shifting hero of the epic Chinese tale "Journey to the West." "Wu" means "understanding" and "kong" means "void," so Wukong can also mean "understanding the void" — hence, the name underscores DAMPE's mission to help scientists understand daresigned to detect the highest-energy beams of light, known as gamma rays, as well as cosmic rays. The latter are particles thak matter. [The Search for Dark Matter in Images]

DAMPE is specifically designed to detect the highest-energy beams of light, known as gamma rays, as well as cosmic rays. The latter are particles that zip through outer space with extraordinarily high amounts of energy. Many cosmic rays are composed of the nuclei of atoms, but some are electrons, while others are the positively charged antimatter counterparts of electrons known as positrons.

More:
https://www.space.com/38937-china-monkey-king-satellite-dark-matter.html?utm_source=notification