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Svom
SVOM (Space Variable Objects Monitor) is a joint mission of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and CNES that is set to send aloft a satellite to observe gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) from a 625-km Earth orbit. GRBs are some of the highest-energy phenomena known in the universe, generated from the explosion of massive stars more than 20 times the mass of our Sun, and from the merger of compact objects like neutron stars or black holes.
The SVOM satellite will be carrying four instruments, two of which were designed and built in France: ECLAIRs, a wide-field X-ray and gamma-ray camera; and MXT, a Microchannel X-ray Telescope. When ECLAIRs detects a GRB, the satellite will be repointed within minutes to precisely target the event so that instruments with a narrower field of view (MXT and VT) can observe it.
Alerts will be relayed to ground in less than one minute whenever a burst is detected, indicating the location of the GRB in the celestial vault to cue large ground telescopes.
This synergy between ground and space systems, allied to the multi-wavelength observations, is what makes the SVOM mission so special for scientists.
China will be responsible for the mission, launch, satellite and operations, and will share responsibility with France for design and construction of the instruments and ground segment. The French contribution is being developed in partnership with research laboratories at the IRFU research institute at CEA, the French atomic energy and alternative energies commission, and at INSU, the national institute of universe science, and IN2P3, the national institute of nuclear and particle physics, both attached to the national scientific research centre CNRS.
Mission's news feed
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State visit of President Emmanuel Macron to the People’s Republic of China: France and China step up space cooperation in the fields of climate and exploration
January 10, 2018
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France-China space cooperation 11th meeting of French-Chinese Space Committee Signature of cooperation agreement on HY-2 ocean-observing missions
Tuesday 23 May in Paris, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall and Wu Yanhua, Vice-Administrator of the China National Space Administration, chaired the 11th meeting of the French-...
May 23, 2017
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France-Germany space cooperation CNES and Max Planck Institute sign agreement for SVOM astronomy mission
CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall and Kirpal Nandra, Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), have signed a memorandum of understanding on...
April 21, 2017