Many experts, including Nobel Prize laureate Yang Zhenning, believe that more ventures into space could lead to further understanding of dark matter. (Photo : NASA)
The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing announced a competition to name the Dark Matter Explorer (DAMPE), a probe satellite tasked with finding dark matter in space, according to a report by Shanghai Daily.
The announcement was made on Tuesday, inviting people from different parts of the globe. Name suggestions will be accepted until Oct. 31 at scitech.people.com.cn/DAMPE.
Five grand prize winners will be invited as spectators to the satellite's launch at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. There will also be 20 first prizes, 50 second prizes, 100 third prizes and 500 runner-up awards to be given away.
The DAMPE probe, which costs approximately $100 million to manufacture, weighs about 1.9 tons and has a payload of 1.4 tons. It is expected to have a three-year lifespan as it orbits the Earth to observe high-energy gamma rays and to study the origin of cosmic rays.
The scientists involved in the project posit that the data collected could provide solid evidence for the existence of dark matter particles.
According to Chang Jin, a researcher at the observatory and chief scientist of the project, DAMPE is the first of five research satellites being launched under the academy's space program.
Scientists generally agree on the existence of dark matter, but the challenge lies in directly detecting it.
Many experts, including Nobel Prize laureate Yang Zhenning, believe that more ventures into space could lead to further understanding of dark matter. Yang suggests that a continuous development of the theory could trigger a revolutionary progress in physics.
