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Monkey King in China dark matter space quest sends data home

Xinhua, December 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

China's first telescope tasked with searching for signs of the elusive dark matter formally began its quest Thursday when it sent home its first set of observation data.

The Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) Satellite, launched exactly a week earlier, ran a power-on test before uploading its first count of high-energy electrons and cosmic rays at around 6 p.m. to the National Space Science Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the Beijing suburb of Huairou.

"Everything seems perfect now... The pointing accuracy and the stability of the craft are actually several times higher than we anticipated when designing the satellite," said Chang Jin, chief scientist on the project.

Nicknamed "Wukong" after the Monkey King from a 16th century Chinese classic, DAMPE was launched into sun-synchronous orbit 500 kilometers above the earth's surface last week from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. It has already circled the Earth more than 100 times. Endi