One year later, China launched another space science satellite
China's "Zhumu" satellite
went to the
sky to "hunt" gravitational waves all-weather
Our newspaper, Beijing, December 10 (China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporter Qiu Chenhui) At 4:14 on December 10, 2020, my country used the Long March 11 carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center to "one arrow and two stars." The all-sky monitor of the gravitational wave storm high-energy electromagnetic counterpart was sent into a predetermined orbit, and the launch was a complete success.
This monitor is composed of two identical tiny satellites, nicknamed the "jimu". The two small satellites, the "little pole" and the "little eye" are distributed on both sides of the earth, forming two "poles", like two " The project will observe the violent explosions of extreme celestial bodies such as black holes and neutron stars.
This is the first time that my country has launched a satellite to monitor the electromagnetic counterpart of gravitational waves throughout the sky. It is also the first time that my country launched a space science satellite one year after the successful launch of "Taiji 1" in August 2019.
How can "Jimu" "catch" gravitational waves, and what is the point of "hunting" gravitational waves?
Gravitational waves are actually guiding force waves.
Gravitational wave bursts are gravitational waves produced by the merger of two dense stars-two black holes, two neutron stars, or a black hole and a neutron star.
This is a high-frequency gravitational wave with a frequency generally ranging from tens to 1,000 Hz. It is the only gravitational wave detected by humans so far.
In February 2016, the American Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced that on September 14, 2015, human beings first detected gravitational waves generated by the merger of two black holes, opening the era of "listening to the universe" of gravitational wave astronomy.
Li Xinqiao, chief engineer of the "Extreme Eye" satellite system payload of the Institute of High Energy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that gravitational waves and the accompanying gamma bursts carry rich physical information and travel hundreds of millions of light-years to show people and depict the whole story of major physical events.
Astronomers use a variety of observation and data analysis methods to interpret the information contained therein, test existing theoretical models and develop new theoretical models, thereby revealing the internal laws of the universe's energetic process.
Li Xinqiao said that although X-rays and gamma rays from distant sources of high-energy celestial bodies have high energy, most of them are absorbed by the earth's atmosphere.
Therefore, the detection of high-energy celestial sources can only be carried out in the outer space of the atmosphere.
This allows the "Extreme Eye" satellites to be useful for detecting X-rays, gamma rays, and high-energy charged particles that are invisible to the naked eye.
In March 2016, the Institute of High Energy, Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed the concept of an all-sky monitor for gravitational wave storm high-energy electromagnetic counterparts, which is to capture the fleeting high-energy electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational waves and seize important research opportunities in the era of gravitational wave astronomy.
According to Zheng Shijie, deputy chief of the "Jimu" satellite scientific application system of the Institute of High Energy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, "Jimu" runs in the same orbital plane, and the two satellites can jointly form a complete monitoring of the sky throughout the day.
"For the fleeting high-energy electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational waves, the'Jimu' satellites can also be easily captured, and can use the new real-time download system to guide all kinds of observation equipment to follow-up observations." Zheng Shijie said, "Ultra Eye" satellites have significant comprehensive advantages over other international satellites in terms of monitoring sky area, energy coverage, detection sensitivity and positioning accuracy. It is expected that the largest sample of gravitational wave gamma bursts and new gravitational wave electromagnetics will be discovered. Correspondence, explore the causes of rapid radio bursts outside the river, discover a batch of special gamma bursts, monitor the complete explosion process of a batch of magnetars, promote the cracking of the formation and evolution of compact celestial bodies such as black holes and neutron stars, and the merger of double compact stars mystery of.
According to news from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the "Jimu" satellite officially approved the project at the end of 2018, and it only took two years from the approval of the project to launch.
Li Xinqiao said, "Jimu" has a short development cycle, heavy tasks and difficult tasks. The satellite payload development team is 35 years old on average, but has rich engineering experience.
According to him, during the originally tight and limited development time, the development team also encountered a sudden new crown pneumonia epidemic. The load development personnel needed to be isolated for testing in different places, and the production of outsourcing units was severely affected and they could not hold face-to-face coordination meetings... …But the developers worked hard together and finally lived up to expectations and completed the task in accordance with the technical indicators and planned schedule.
"The'Jimu' satellite launched this time will become the astronomical satellite with the highest sensitivity to monitor gamma bursts in orbit within a few years." Li Xinqiao said. Go far and see clearly, and you will get the "hot eyes and golden eyes".
In the past few years, the dark matter particle detection satellite "Wukong", the Shijian-10 returnable scientific experiment satellite, the quantum science experiment satellite "Mozi", the hard X-ray modulation telescope satellite "Huiyan"... these are the first phase of the space science pilot project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The first batch of satellites brought people one scientific discovery after another.
The reporter learned that in addition to the "Taiji-1" and "Jiumu" satellites, the second phase of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' special project also deployed space science satellites such as the advanced space-based solar observatory, the Einstein probe, and the solar wind-magnetospheric interaction panoramic imaging satellite. It is planned to be launched successively in the next 3 to 4 years, and is expected to achieve major original results in solar eruptive activities, time domain astronomy, and solar-terrestrial relations.
Source: China Youth Daily