DAMPE
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China launches satellite to unlock dark matter's secrets
Dark matter is that pesky, hidden material that keeps foiling scientists' efforts to come up with a grand unified theory of physics. China's space agency has set about to find it with the launch of DAMPE, the Dark Matter Particle Explorer. It successfully made it into a 500 km (300 mile) high geosynchronous orbit aboard a Long March-2D launch vehicle. The DAMPE satellite is essentially a powerful space telescope tuned for the detection of high-energy gamma rays, electrons and cosmic rays. Once ready, it'll peer into corners of space where scientists believe dark matter lurks.
