(Yicai) April 25 -- The Space-based multi-band Variable Object Monitor, an astronomical satellite jointly developed by China and France, has captured a gamma-ray burst from 13 billion years ago, making it the oldest stellar object explosion ever observed.

The burst came from the very early days of the universe when it was only about 730 million years old, Wei Jianyan, chief scientist of the SVOM project and a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said during the Space Day of China event held in Shanghai yesterday. It could be the death process of a first-generation star, Wei added.

Gamma-ray bursts, an astronomical phenomenon caused by the explosion of celestial bodies that release huge energy exceeding the sun's total radiation in its whole life cycle, were first observed in the late 1960s. They are the most violent astronomical phenomenon known to humankind.

"The findings verify the excellent performance of SVOM, and more importantly, provide a new perspective for the study of cutting-edge topics including star formation in the early universe, the birth of black holes, and the merger of compact objects," Wei told Yicai.

The detection of gamma bursts is the main task of the SVOM project, jointly initiated by the China National Space Administration and the French National Centre for Space Studies. After nearly 20 years of research, verification, and engineering, the satellite was launched into orbit at China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center last June.

SVOM has completed various test missions and detected more than 100 gamma-ray bursts over its 10 months of in-orbit flight, making it the world's most capable satellite system for observing such bursts, Wei pointed out.

SVOM is expected to work in orbit for at least three years, continuing the search for high-energy explosion phenomena in the universe and providing scientific bases for improving theories about the evolution of the early universe.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev