China's first dark matter satellite performing better than expected in first year

China's first dark matter satellite has been in space for a year and is far exceeding all of its performance expectations. Twelve months in operation as of Saturday, "Wukong" has detected 1.8 billion dark matter particles, among them more than one million super high-energy electrons which are crucial to the study of dark matter's annihilation. The four major parts of the payload are operating under normal conditions with everything functioning properly. "Wukong" is named after a formidable figure of Chinese legend – the "Monkey King." Its latest findings will be released at the beginning of 2017. Launched on December 17, 2015 on a Long March 2-D rocket, "Wukong" was designed for a three-year mission. It will scan space nonstop in all directions in the first two years and then focus on areas where dark matter is most likely to be observed in the third. The dark matter hypothesis plays a central role in the current modeling of cosmic structure formation and galaxy formation and evolution. Subscribe to us on Youtube: https://goo.gl/lP12gA Download for IOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cctvn... Download for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de... Follow us on: Facebook:   / cctvnewschina   Twitter:   / cctvnews   Google+: https://plus.google.com/+CCTVNEWSbeijing Tumblr:   / cctvnews   Weibo: http://weibo.com/cctvnewsbeijing