Scientists are inviting the public to name China's first dark matter satellite, which is due to be launched in December.

The satellite will be China's first launched for purely scientific purposes and not for economic benefit, according to Chang Jin, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Purple Mountain Observatory. The invitation was issued during an event in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on Tuesday.

First postulated in the 1930s, dark matter is believed to make up 85 percent of the matter in the cosmos and 27 percent of the known universe - but only theoretically, as it has never been observed by instruments.