The SVOM mission (Space-based multi-band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor) is a Franco-Chinese mission dedicated to the study of the most distant explosions of stars, the gamma-ray bursts.
The Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) is scheduled to blast off on a Chinese Long March 2C rocket from the Xichang launch site in China’s Sichuan province.
SVOM’s mission is to use its X-ray vision to track down the source of gamma-ray bursts, which are detected in the sky around once every day.
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are short-lived bursts of gamma-ray light, the most energetic form of light.
Lasting anywhere from a few milliseconds to several minutes, GRBs shine hundreds of times brighter than a typical supernova and about a million trillion times as bright as the Sun.