On September 16th, Professor Bin Wang, the director of CGC, published a paper titled "Concepts and Status of Chinese Space Gravitational Field" in the new issue of Nature Astronomy.

Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime, which contain information about the origin and evolution of the universe. Gravitational waves were predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity more than a century ago (in 1915). However, it wasn't until February 11, 2016 that LIGO announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves (dated September 14, 2015) that were produced from the collision of two black holes. This marks the beginning of a new era of gravitational wave astronomy. Subsequently gravitational wave detection combined with another observation techniques also marks the start of so-called "multi-messenger astronomy".

Professor Bin Wang’s  paper in Nature Astronomy is the first work published in a top international academic journal in which Chinese scientists have systematically introduced the history, investment, planning and progress of gravitational wave research in China. Indeed, as mentioned in the paper, the government strongly supports the development of gravitational wave detection in China. The Ministry of Science and Technology has launched the key program for gravitational wave detection. The National Natural Science Foundation of China has launched the major program for gravitational wave detection. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Education and other departments have also made medium-term and long-term plans for gravitational wave research. Chinese scientists have independently proposed "Taiji" and "Tianqin" space gravitational wave detection projects, joining the international arena for the most advanced and fundamental scientific research of gravitational wave. In this age, international collaboration is crucial for science, and indeed the paper discussed the scientific merits of having the Chinese detectors collaborating with LISA and other projects.

The paper is available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01480-3