Chinese scientists want to build a powerful telescope to find dark matter
- The ambitious project – known as VLAST – aims to achieve 10 times the sensitivity of Nasa’s Fermi Large Area Telescope
- Researchers say it could go into orbit by the end of this decade, but it still needs government approval
Chinese scientists want to build a next-generation space observatory that could put them in a leading position in the search for dark matter – if it works out.
The ambitious Very Large Area gamma-ray Space Telescope, or VLAST, is still in the early research and development phase. But the aim is to achieve 10 times the sensitivity of Nasa’s Fermi Large Area Telescope – currently the most sensitive gamma-ray telescope in the world.
The telescope could go into orbit by the end of this decade if it gets the green light from the Chinese government soon, according to researchers involved in the proposal to build it.
Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of light. They help scientists to see into the extreme universe to observe things like rapidly spinning neutron stars and super dense black holes. They are also indirect proof of dark matter, which makes up most of the matter in the cosmos but has eluded scientists for decades.
Astronomers believe that dark matter must exist to provide the gravitational pull needed to hold galaxies and galaxy clusters together. Hypothetically, when dark matter particles collide they decay or annihilate each other, and at the same time produce gamma rays which can be detected by telescopes.