China, France Launch Satellite to Better Understand the Universe

This photo shows the launch platform for the French-Chinese Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) satellite mission in Xichang, in China’s southwestern Sichuan province on June 21, 2024. (AFP)
This photo shows the launch platform for the French-Chinese Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) satellite mission in Xichang, in China’s southwestern Sichuan province on June 21, 2024. (AFP)
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China, France Launch Satellite to Better Understand the Universe

This photo shows the launch platform for the French-Chinese Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) satellite mission in Xichang, in China’s southwestern Sichuan province on June 21, 2024. (AFP)
This photo shows the launch platform for the French-Chinese Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) satellite mission in Xichang, in China’s southwestern Sichuan province on June 21, 2024. (AFP)

A French-Chinese satellite blasted off Saturday on a hunt for the mightiest explosions in the universe, in a notable example of cooperation between a Western power and the Asian giant.

Developed by engineers from both countries, the Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) will seek out gamma-ray bursts, the light from which has travelled billions of light years to reach Earth.

The 930-kilogram satellite carrying four instruments -- two French, two Chinese -- took off around 3:00 pm (0700 GMT) aboard a Chinese Long March 2-C rocket from a space base in Xichang, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, AFP journalists witnessed.

Gamma-ray bursts generally occur after the explosion of huge stars -- those more than 20 times as big as the sun -- or the fusion of compact stars. The extremely bright cosmic beams can give off a blast of energy equivalent to over a billion suns.

Observing them is like "looking back in time, as the light from these objects takes a long time to reach us", Ore Gottlieb, an astrophysicist at the Flatiron Institute's Center for Astrophysics in New York, told AFP.

- 'Several mysteries' -

The rays carry traces of the gas clouds and galaxies they pass through on their journey through space -- valuable data for better understanding the history and evolution of the universe.

"SVOM has the potential to unravel several mysteries in the field of (gamma-ray bursts), including detecting the most distant GRBs in the universe, which correspond to the earliest GRBs," Gottlieb said.

The most distant bursts identified to date were produced just 630 million years after the Big Bang -- when the universe was in its infancy.

"We are... interested in gamma-ray bursts for their own sake, because they are very extreme cosmic explosions which allow us to better understand the death of certain stars," said Frederic Daigne, an astrophysicist at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris.

"All of this data makes it possible to test the laws of physics with phenomena that are impossible to reproduce in the laboratory on Earth."

Once analyzed, the data could help to better understand the composition of space, the dynamics of gas clouds or other galaxies.

The project stems from a partnership between the French and Chinese space agencies as well as other scientific and technical groups from both nations.

Space cooperation at this level between the West and China is fairly uncommon, especially since the United States banned all collaboration between NASA and Beijing in 2011.

- Race against time -

"US concerns on technology transfer have inhibited US allies from collaborating with the Chinese very much, but it does happen occasionally," said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the United States.

In 2018, China and France jointly launched CFOSAT, an oceanographic satellite mainly used in marine meteorology.

And several European countries have taken part in China's Chang'e lunar exploration program.

So while SVOM is "by no means unique", it remains "significant" in the context of space collaboration between China and the West, said McDowell.

Once in orbit 625 kilometers (388 miles) above the Earth, the satellite will send its data back to observatories.

The main challenge is that gamma-ray bursts are extremely brief, leaving scientists in a race against time to gather information.

Once it detects a burst, SVOM will send an alert to a team on duty around the clock.

Within five minutes, they will have to rev up a network of telescopes on the ground that will align precisely with the axis of the burst's source to make more detailed observations.



A Zoo Elephant Dies in Indonesia after Being Swept Away in a River

The carcass of an elephant is covered with a blue tarp after it was found dead on a riverbank after being swept away by the river's current the previous evening, in Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia, 17 December 2024. (EPA)
The carcass of an elephant is covered with a blue tarp after it was found dead on a riverbank after being swept away by the river's current the previous evening, in Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia, 17 December 2024. (EPA)
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A Zoo Elephant Dies in Indonesia after Being Swept Away in a River

The carcass of an elephant is covered with a blue tarp after it was found dead on a riverbank after being swept away by the river's current the previous evening, in Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia, 17 December 2024. (EPA)
The carcass of an elephant is covered with a blue tarp after it was found dead on a riverbank after being swept away by the river's current the previous evening, in Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia, 17 December 2024. (EPA)

An elephant that lived at the zoo on Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali was found dead on Tuesday after being swept away by a strong river current.

Molly, a 45-year-old female Sumatran elephant was one of two being guided by a mahout to a holding area outside of the zoo grounds through a river on Monday afternoon. The activity was part of their daily routine of mental and physical stimulation.

The first elephant had made it across and Molly was in the river when the current suddenly increased due to heavy rain upstream, the zoo said in a statement.

"In this situation, Molly lost her balance and was swept away by the current," it said. The mahout was uninjured.

A team from Bali Zoo and Bali Natural Resources Conservation Agency conducted an intensive search. The dead elephant was found Tuesday morning in Cengceng river in Sukawati subdistrict in Gianyar district, Bali.

"The entire team at Bali Zoo is deeply saddened by the loss of Molly, a female elephant who has been an important part of our extended family. Molly was known to be a kind and friendly elephant," the zoo said.

"This was an unavoidable event, but we are committed to conducting a thorough evaluation of our operational procedures and risk mitigation measures, especially during the rainy season, to ensure the safety of all our animals in the future," said Emma Chandra, the zoo's head of public relations.

Seasonal rains from around October through to March frequently cause flooding and landslides in Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands.

Sumatran elephants are a critically endangered species and fewer than 700 remain on Sumatra island. This subspecies of the Asian elephant, one of two species of the largest mammal in the world, is protected under an Indonesian law on the conservation of biological natural resources and their ecosystems.