BEIJING, March 29 (Xinhua) — The following is a summary of published science and technology news of China.

NEW ROCKET

A modified version of the Long March-6 carrier rocket with solid strap-on boosters made its maiden flight on Tuesday, sending two satellites into planned orbit.

The rocket blasted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China’s Shanxi Province at 5:50 p.m. (Beijing Time).

The modified rocket is China’s first type of carrier rocket equipped with solid strap-on boosters. It uses non-toxic and non-polluting propellants and can send satellites to the sun-synchronous orbit.

GALAXIES FOUND

Using China’s gigantic optical telescope, astronomers have discovered a record number of small compact galaxies outside the Milky Way where star formation is taking place at a rapid pace.

With the help of the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), a team of researchers under the aegis of the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered 1,417 new compact galaxies, almost twice as many as previously known.

DAYTIME OWL

Paleontologists have discovered the amazingly well-preserved fossil skeleton of an extinct owl that lived more than 6 million years ago in northwestern China.

The skeleton’s fossilized eye bones revealed that the owl was active in the daytime, not the night, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science on Tuesday.

This is the first record of an ancient owl being active during the day.