CNES projects library

September 26, 2023

Svom

SVOM is a French-Chinese astronomy astrophysics mission to detect gamma-ray bursts, the most distant star explosions in the universegenerated by the explosion of massive stars or the merger of neutron stars or black holes.

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.